The Usage of Acoustic Emission in Apis mellifera Research

Abstract

This paper deals with acoustic emission (AE) which was used to monitor group approximately ten pieces of honeybees in a glass jar. Acoustic emission is a part of the non-destructive methods and it is especially used for to monitor and detection defects of material on construction sites and industrial process. In the last time the acoustic emission was tested for very special objects such as to monitor of growth of plants or behaviour of insects. The mission this work was to apply a new experiment on the behaviour of colonies by means of acoustic emission, which it allows to capture waves and vibrations spreading in the material. Vibrations are one of the major parts of communication in the bee communities. Sensing colonies with the support of acoustic emission can be used for understanding of biological behaviour and reaction bees on diff erent kinds of stimuli. During the experiment were used two sensors for to monitor the activities of selected bees diverging from the normal state were observed. The sensor No. 1 was mounted directly on the glass with using a rubber strip. The sensor No. 2 was mounted on the steel sheet by using a clamp. Whole glass jar was isolated with polystyrene against disturbing waves through the environment. The non-destructive method of acoustic emission was scanned activity of the selected bee sample in the immediate vicinity for approximately thirty hours.