ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to record the electrocardiograms of honey bees and aims to manipulate their heart beat frequencies. Electrical stimulation of the nervous system, cutting of all connections between thorax and abdomen, or severing of the neuronal link between ventral nerve cord and heart had no effect. The dorsal vessel in Apis mellifera is an important component of the circulatory system. The part lying in the abdomen is called the heart. The rhythmic beating of the heart can be observed optically. Worker bees were caught at the entrance of a hive during the summer and immobilized in a refrigerator at 8°C. The heart beat frequency began to rise as soon as an animal increased the thorax temperature above the environmental temperature by shivering of the indirect flight muscles. An amputation of the abdomen revealed exitatory and inhibitory nervous regulation of the heart beat frequency from the thoracic ganglion mass in the house fly.
