Terahertz Dosimetry in European Honey Bees

Reliable environmental monitoring, particularly for small creatures like insects, must balance precise pollinator and pest identification with minimal habitat disruption while adhering to biosecurity considerations. Future miniaturized mobile terahertz (THz) systems designed for tracking sub-millimeter targets must operate within strict power limits to ensure safety and compliance with regulatory standards. This study predicts electromagnetic (EM) exposure at 300 GHz, analyzing a European honey bee (Apis mellifera) in various orientations under both near-field and far-field conditions of a state-of-the-art horn antenna modeled at this frequency. The frequency-dependent heterogeneous material properties of the European honey bee at 300 GHz have been derived from our ongoing research on a real honey bee. A comparative analysis between a simplified homogeneous model and a more realistic heterogeneous honey bee model demonstrates that the homogeneous approximation can lead to either overestimation or underestimation of power absorption, depending on the specific body region analyzed.