Oral toxicity of five pesticides to Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera

Two methods "small breaker" and "feeding tube" were used to measure the oral toxicity of five pesticides to Apis cerana cerana Fab. and Apis mellifera L..The relative merits of the two methods and the sensitivity of the two kinds of honeybees to the toxicants were compared.The results showed that the LC50 values determined by "small breaker" method were lower than that by "feeding tube" method.Furthermore,comparing with A.mellifera, A.cerana cerana was more sensitive to pesticides tested,which suggested that A.cerana cerana might be more suitable for use in the toxicological evaluation of pesticides.