Another option for detecting consumption is to spike the diet with an
indicator dye. I did that years ago with termites - since they have alkaline
guts, chose a dye that would change color under alkaline conditions. Have
to be careful about toxicity, but I found dyes that had no lethal effect.
Now, since termites are light colored, you could see the color in the gut
without dissection. For bees, it would still speed things up - just yank
the gut and look for color.
Jerry
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