Abstract
The purpose of this study is to verify the importance of the body surface and tissues of foraginghoney bee Apis mellifera as bioaccumulator of heavy metals that can therefore, be included inbiomonitoring programmes of heavy metals in terrestrial ecosystems. The presence of fiverepresentative heavy metals (copper, zinc, cadmium, lead and iron) was investigated in honeybee tissues (mid gut, hind gut and fat body), body surface and wings using proton induced X-rayemission method. X-ray spectrums of mid gut and fat body of forager bees demonstrated smallpeaks for Cd, Pb, Fe and Ni compared to the control. Moreover, slightly larger peaks for Cu andZn were noticed in the X-ray spectrums of whole honey bee mid gut, hind gut and fat body thanthose of the control. Forager honey bee body surface showed small peaks for Cu and Pbcompared to the control. Similarly, small peaks for Cd, Pb and Ni were noticed in the X-rayspectrums of wings and hind gut of the forager honey bee compared to control.
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