Life expectancy of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) is of general interest to gerontological research because its variability among different groups of bees is one of the most striking cases of natural plasticity of aging. Worker honey bees spend their first days of adult life working in the nest, then transition to foraging and die between 4 and 8 weeks of age. Foraging is believed to be primari...

Amidst ongoing declines in honey bee health, the contributory role of the newer systemic insecticides continues to be intensely debated. Scores of toxicological field experiments, which bee scientists and regulators in the United States have looked to for definitive causal evidence, indicate a lack of support. This paper analyzes the methodological norms that shape the design and interpretation...

BACKGROUND Learning of arbitrary relations is the capacity to acquire knowledge about associations between events or stimuli that do not share any similarities, and use this knowledge to make behavioural choices. This capacity is well documented in humans and vertebrates, and there is some evidence it exists in the honeybee (Apis mellifera). However, little is known about whether the ability fo...

the fruit set rate and yield of pear are commonly low due to insufficient pollination, as the species is unattractive to honeybees. to improve honeybee foraging behavior for the pollination of dangshan pear (pyrus bretschneideri cv. dangshansuli), nine methods were used to attract bees. a control treatment of colonies was fed with normal sugar syrup, while six other treatments were fed using su...

To explore immune system activation in the honey bee, Apis mellifera L., larvae of four ages were exposed through feeding to spores of a natural pathogen, Paenibacillus larvae larvae, to cells of a diverse set of related nonpathogenic bacteria, and to bacterial coat components. These larvae were then assayed for RNA levels of genes encoding two antibacterial peptides, abaecin and defensin. Larv...

A restrained honey bee can be trained to extend its proboscis in response to the pairing of an odor with a sucrose reward, a form of olfactory associative learning referred to as the proboscis extension response (PER). Although the ability of flying honey bees to respond to visual cues is well-established, associative visual learning in restrained honey bees has been challenging to demonstrate....

Because bees fly around, visit flowers and chase mates, we conclude intuitively that they see things as we do. But their vision is unexpectedly different, so we say it is anti-intuitive. Detailed tests have demonstrated separate detectors for modulation of blue and green receptors, edge orientation (green only), and areas of black. The edge detectors are about 3° across, independent, and not re...

This study investigates how the colour, shape and location of patterns could be memorized within a time frame. Bees were trained to visit two Y-mazes, one of which presented yellow vertical (rewarded) versus horizontal (non-rewarded) gratings at one site in the morning, while another presented blue horizontal (rewarded) versus vertical (non-rewarded) gratings at another site in the afternoon. T...

For pollinators to exert selection on floral traits, they must be able to detect and respond to differences in floral morphologies. I examined foraging preferences by the bee Apis mellifera (Apidae) visiting naturally occurring flowers of Mimulus guttatus (Scrophulariaceae). The results indicate that A. mellifera preferentially selects larger M. guttatus flowers in their foraging bouts. Since d...

Background and Aim: Recently, viral diseases of honey bees (Apis mellifera) have presented an increasing threat to beekeeping. This study aimed examine the presence bee viruses in Apis non-Apis species, mite Varroa destructor, pollinated plants Armenia. Materials Methods: Sampling was performed Tavush Province, northeast Republic Armenia, from August November 2019. Overall, 200 A. mellifera bee...