Equivocal Evidence for Colony Level Stress Effects on Bumble Bee Pollination Services

Flight of the bumble bee: Buzzes predict pollination services

Multiple interacting factors drive recent declines in wild and managed bees, threatening their pollination services. Widespread and intensive monitoring could lead to more effective management of wild and managed bees. However, tracking their dynamic populations is costly. We tested the effectiveness of an inexpensive, noninvasive and passive acoustic survey technique for monitoring bumble bee ...

Effects of honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and bumble bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) presence on cranberry (Ericales: Ericaceae) pollination.

Honey bees, Apis mellifera L., are frequently used to pollinate commercial cranberries, Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait., but information is lacking on the relative contribution of honey bees and native bees, the effects of surrounding vegetation on bee visitation, and on optimal timing for honey bee introduction. We begin with a descriptive study of numbers of honey bees, bumble bees, and other bees...

Effects of Novel Pesticides on Bumble Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Colony Health and Foraging Ability

Two experiments were conducted testing for lethal and sublethal effects of the transgenicproteinsCry1Acandchitinase, and thechemical seedand soil treatment imidaclopridonbumble bees (Bombus occidentalis Greene and B. impatiens Cresson, Hymenoptera: Apidae). In the Þrst experiment, B. occidentalis colonies were exposed to realistic residue levels of Cry1Ac, chitinase, and imidacloprid found in p...

Neonicotinoid pesticide reduces bumble bee colony growth and queen production.

Growing evidence for declines in bee populations has caused great concern because of the valuable ecosystem services they provide. Neonicotinoid insecticides have been implicated in these declines because they occur at trace levels in the nectar and pollen of crop plants. We exposed colonies of the bumble bee Bombus terrestris in the laboratory to field-realistic levels of the neonicotinoid imi...

The Bumble Bee Immune Responses