Paramagnetism of Honeybees

Abstract

The magnetic properties of honeybees have been investigated bymeasuring their susceptibility, magnetization andelectron-spin-resonance (ESR) absorption. The abdomen of adult workerhoneybees shows typical paramagnetism with small magnetic remanencedown to 4.2 K, while the other parts of the honeybees are apparentlydiamagnetic. The paramagnetism of the abdomen seems to develop not inthe pupal stage but after coming out of comb. Drones show noparamagnetism, but a queen bee seems to have some paramagnetic speciesin her abdomen.