>I am looking for good methods of bleeding bees without causing undue harm >to the bees. Anybody have a sure-fire, easy method, especially one that >could be employed by students without much experience with bees. > Jerry: The easiest method to bleed bees is to use 1 or 2ul microcaps and gently insert them under one of the abdominal tergites in the vicinity of the dorsal vessel. We have used this technique to sample individual bees several times for the analysis of carbohydrates in the hemolymph. We usually place the blood samples into 1.5 ml microfuge tubes for further handling of individual samples. Regards - Rick Fell Richard Fell Department of Entomology, Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061 703-231-7207 Fax 703-231-9131