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...

In this study we measured in vitro honey bee enzyme activities in presence of the synergist piperonyl butoxide (PBO) and some new benzodioxole and dihydrobenzofuran derivatives through absorbance and fluorescence spectrophotometric assays, to determine if and to what extent detoxification systems and acetylcholinesterases are affected by these compounds. Both Italian (Italy) and Carniolan (Czec...

BACKGROUND Honey bees are exposed to phytochemicals through the nectar, pollen and propolis consumed to sustain the colony. They may also encounter mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus fungi infesting pollen in beebread. Moreover, bees are exposed to agricultural pesticides, particularly in-hive acaricides used against the parasite Varroa destructor. They cope with these and other xenobiotics pri...

Honey bees are exposed to a variety of environmental factors that impact their health, including nutritional stress, pathogens, and pesticides. In particular, there has been increasing evidence that sublethal exposure to pesticides can cause subtle, yet important effects on honey bee health and behavior. Here, we add to this body of knowledge by presenting data on bee-collected pollen containin...

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...

Apis mellifera originated in Africa and extended its range into Eurasia in two or more ancient expansions. In 1956, honey bees of African origin were introduced into South America, their descendents admixing with previously introduced European bees, giving rise to the highly invasive and economically devastating "Africanized" honey bee. Here we ask whether the honey bee's out-of-Africa expansio...

California’s almond industry, valued at $2.3 billion per year, depends on the pollinator services of honey bees, although pollination by other insects, mainly solitary wild bees, is being investigated as an alternative because of recent declines in the number of honey bee colonies. Our objective is to model the movements of honey bees and determine the conditions under which they will forage in...

Honey bee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), colonies infested by parasitic mites are more prone to suffer from a variety of stresses, including cold temperature. We evaluated the overwintering ability of candidate breeder lines of Russian honey bees, most of which are resistant to both Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman and Acarapis woodi (Rennie), during 1999-2001. Our results indica...

The dynamics of viruses are critical to our understanding of disease pathogenesis. Using honey bee Deformed wing virus (DWV) as a model, we conducted field and laboratory studies to investigate the roles of abiotic and biotic stress factors as well as host health conditions in dynamics of virus replication in honey bees. The results showed that temperature decline could lead to not only signifi...

Under certain circumstances, the effects of imidacloprid on honey bees may not be immediately perceived. The aim of this study was to investigate if imidacloprid, provided in sub-lethal doses, could influence honey bee behaviour in the laboratory. Imidacloprid (supplied as Confidor®) was offered to bees in 50 % sucrose solution at two different concentrations (100 ppb and 500 ppb of active ingr...