The foraging strategies used by animals are key to their success in spatially and temporally heterogeneous environments. We hypothesise that when a food source at a known location ceases to be available, flying insects will exhibit search patterns that optimise the rediscovery of such resources. In order to study these searching patterns, foraging honeybees were trained to an artificial feeder ...

A population ecological hostparasite model is used to evaluate the potential impact of clonal parasitic laying workers of the Cape honeybee, Apis mellifera capensis on populations of Apis mellifera scutellata host colonies in apiaries and in the wild. The model includes three basic life history parameters: reproductive rate of the host colonies, transmission efficiency of the parasite and the d...

Background. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) provide a principal example of diphenic development. Excess feeding of female larvae results in queens (large reproductives). Moderate diet yields workers (small helpers). The signaling pathway that links provisioning to female developmental fate is not understood, yet we reasoned that it could include TOR (target of rapamycin), a nutrientand energy-sensi...

In our research, the adaptation of imported carniolan ( Apis mellifera carnica Pollm ) and Carpathian carpatica honey bees to natural climatic conditions Uzbekistan, main indicators queen in experimental groups, results two-year assessment economic benefits were studied for first time Uzbekistan.

The mineral, total amino acid, and sterol compositions of pollen collected by Apis mellifera L. were compared with the pollen of a plant consumed by Bombus terrestris (L.): Arbutus unedo L. This plant provides the predominant food resource for the main autumn generation of B. terrestris in southern France. Honey bees also forage on this plant, although only for nectar. The mineral composition o...

The poor health status of the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, compared to its Eastern counterpart, Apis cerana, is remarkable. This has been attributed to lower pathogen prevalence in A. cerana colonies and to their ability to survive infestations with the ectoparasitic mite, Varroa destructor. These properties have been linked to an enhanced removal of dead or unhealthy immature bees by adu...

The mineral, total amino acid, and sterol compositions of pollen collected by Apis mellifera L. were compared with the pollen of a plant consumed by Bombus terrestris (L.): Arbutus unedo L. This plant provides the predominant food resource for the main autumn generation of B. terrestris in southern France. Honey bees also forage on this plant, although only for nectar. The mineral composition o...

A number of image recognition systems have been specifically formulated for the individual recognition of large animals. These programs are versatile and can easily be adapted for the identification of smaller individuals such as insects. The Interactive Individual Identification System, I3S Classic, initially produced for the identification of individual whale sharks was employed to distinguis...

Meiotic recombination is required for proper chromosome assortment, and accordingly, 1-2 chiasmata per chromosome are found in most species. However, observed recombination rates deviate in some cases from neutral expectations between and within genomes and may play an important role in adaptive evolution. One potentially important argument for an adaptive evolution of recombination rates is th...