In many temperate terrestrial forest ecosystems, both natural human disturbances drive the reestablishment of forests. Succession in plant communities, in addition to reforestation following the creation of open sites through harvesting or natural disturbances, can affect forest faunal assemblages. Wild bees perform an important ecosystem function in human-altered and natural or seminatural eco...

The individual roles of honeybee workers and drones in heat regulation were investigated using single combs of bees and brood (about 1,000 individuals) placed in boxes at 15 degrees C. After 1 h and before cluster formation, I measured the elevation of bee thoracic surface temperature (Tths) above local ambient temperature (Ta). Bees were then left overnight at 15 degrees C. During the preclust...

In order to evaluate eight different protein sources in honey bee nutrition, some experiments were conducted as a completely randomized designs with four replicates and three steps incubator, field and overwintering in Isfahan region. Protein sources were lentil flour, soybean flour, soybean meal, bread yeast, wheat gluten, skim milk powder, fish meal and Pollen. Results showed that the longevi...

Bumblebees and other pollinators provide a vital ecosystem service for the agricultural sector. Recent studies however have suggested that exposure to systemic neonicotinoid insecticides in flowering crops has sub-lethal effects on the bumblebee workforce, and hence in reducing queen production. The mechanism behind reduced nest performance, however, remains unclear. Here we use Radio Frequency...

Fumagillin is the only antibiotic approved for control of nosema disease in honey bees and has been extensively used in United States apiculture for more than 50 years for control of Nosema apis. It is toxic to mammals and must be applied seasonally and with caution to avoid residues in honey. Fumagillin degrades or is diluted in hives over the foraging season, exposing bees and the microsporid...

Potential decreases in crop yield from reductions in bee-mediated pollination services threaten food production demands of a growing population. Many fruit and vegetable growers supplement their fields with bee colonies during crop bloom. The extent to which crop production requires supplementary pollination services beyond those provided by wild bees is not well documented. Pumpkin, Cucurbita ...

The importance of honey bees to the world economy far surpasses their contribution in terms of honey production; they are responsible for up to 30% of the world's food production through pollination of crops. Since fall 2006, honey bees in the U.S. have faced a serious population decline, due in part to a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which is a disease syndrome that is like...

In order to evaluate eight different protein sources in honey bee nutrition, some experiments were conducted as a completely randomized designs with four replicates and three steps incubator, field and overwintering in Isfahan region. Protein sources were lentil flour, soybean flour, soybean meal, bread yeast, wheat gluten, skim milk powder, fish meal and Pollen. Results showed that the longevi...

Bee colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a growing threat to the efficient production of fruits, vegetables and nut crops, in addition to the critical role of bees as pollinators for numerous seed crops (Neumann and Carreck, 2009; Wines, 2013). CCD is characterized as a loss of adult (worker) bees from the hive that leaves the queen and immature bees (brood) inadequately attended even though there...

One of the values of biodiversity is that it may provide 'biological insurance' for services currently rendered by domesticated species or technology. We used crop pollination as a model system, and investigated whether the loss of a domesticated pollinator (the honey bee) could be compensated for by native, wild bee species. We measured pollination provided to watermelon crops at 23 farms in N...