Nocturnal bees, wasps and ants have considerably larger ocelli than their diurnal relatives, suggesting an active role in vision at night. In a first step to understanding what this role might be, the morphology and physiological optics of ocelli were investigated in three tropical rainforest species - the nocturnal sweat bee Megalopta genalis, the nocturnal paper wasp Apoica pallens and the di...

A new Strepsiptera genus from South America is described, Rozenia gen. n., with three new species: Rozeniacalliopsidis sp. n. (type species), Rozeniaperuana sp. n. and Rozeniaplaticephala sp. n. These three new species are parasites of bees belonging to the tribe Calliopsini (Andrenidae, Panurginae). Rozeniacalliopsidis sp. n. is a parasite of the bee genus Calliopsis Smith, 1853 and Rozeniaper...

A new species of fossil bumble bee (Apinae: Bombini) is described and figured from Early Miocene (Burdigalian) deposits of the Most Basin at the Bílina Mine, Czech Republic. Bombus trophoniussp. n., is placed within the subgenus Cullumanobombus Vogt and distinguished from the several species groups therein. The species is apparently most similar to the Nearctic B. (Cullumanobombus) rufocinctus ...

In this paper, a complete taxonomic revision of the species of Centris (Wagenknechtia) Moure is presented for the first time. The following species are recognized: Centris cineraria Smith, C. escomeli Cockerell, C. moldenkei Toro & Chiappa, C. muralis Burmeister, C. orellanai Ruiz, C. rhodophthalma Pérez and C. vardyorum Roig-Alsina. Floral associations, distribution records, and diagnoses of b...

Six behavioural experiments were carried out to investigate the magnetic field effects on the nest-exiting flight directions of the honeybee Schwarziana quadripunctata (Meliponini). No significant differences resulted during six experiment days under varying geomagnetic field and the applied static inhomogeneous field (about ten times the geomagnetic field) conditions. A surprising statisticall...

have shown some success based on protection of habitats such as the Aberdare National Park in Kenya, which has been fenced in completely in a project originally addressed at the needs of rhinos, but which proved also beneficial to elephants (Curr. Biol. (2009), 19, R465). In addition, surprisingly simple measures can be highly effective in avoiding conflict between human and wildlife population...

The antibacterial activity of honey has been known since the 19th century. Recently, the potent activity of honey against antibiotic-resistant bacteria has further increased the interest for application of honey, but incomplete knowledge of the antibacterial activity is a major obstacle for clinical applicability. The high sugar concentration, hydrogen peroxide, and the low pH are well-known an...

The evolution of eusociality is hypothesized to have involved de-coupling parental care from reproduction mediated by changes in endocrine regulation. While data for obligately eusocial insects are consistent with this hypothesis, we lack information from species representative of the transition from solitary reproduction to eusociality. Here we report the first evidence for a link between endo...

Experiment w as carried out during 2009 and 2010 in tw o honey bee apiaries belong to Agricultural Extension Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The results showed that there were three species of bee-eaters belonging to family (Meropidae) in the considered location, European bee-eater (Merops apiaster Linnaeus, 1758); Olive bee-eater (Merops superciliosus Linn...

Fire promotes an abundance of nest sites for the stem nesting bee Exoneura nigrescens, which remain viable for approximately 10 years. The finite duration of nesting substrate and localized fire events suggest that migration should minimize genetic structure among suitable habitat patches. Exoneura nigrescens was sampled from 7 localities with a known fire history in southwestern Victoria, Aust...