Temporal and preparation effects in the magnetic nanoparticles of Apis mellifera body parts

Magnetic nanoparticles in the Apis mellifera abdomens are well accepted as involved in their magnetoreception mechanism. The effects of sample preparation on the time evolution of magnetic particles in the honeybee body parts (antennae, head, thorax and abdomen) were investigated by Ferromagnetic Resonance (FMR) at room temperature (RT), for about 100 days. Three preparations were tested: (a) washed with water (WT); (b) as (a), kept in glutaraldehyde 2.5% in 0.1 M cacodylate buffer (pH 7.4) for 24 h and washed with cacodylate buffer (C); (c) as (a), kept in glutaraldehyde 2.5% for 24 h and washed with glutaraldehyde 2.5% in cacodylate buffer (GLC). The four body parts of young and adult worker presented magnetic nanoparticles. The Mn2+ lines are observed except for the antennae spectra. The high field (HF) and low field (LF) components previously observed in the spectra of social insects, are confirmed in these spectra. The HF line is present in all spectra while the LF is easily observed in the spectra of the young bee and it appears as a baseline shift in spectra of some adult parts. The HF intensity of the abdomen is commonly one order of magnitude larger than any other body parts. This is the first systematic study on the conservation of magnetic material in all body parts of bees. The results show that the time evolution of the spectra depends on the body part, conserving solution and bee age. Further measurements are necessary to understand these effects and extend it to other social insects.