Honey bee foragers use a "waggle dance" to inform nestmates about direction and distance to locations of attractive food. The sound and air flows generated by dancer's wing and abdominal vibrations have been implicated as important cues, but the decoding mechanisms for these dance messages are poorly understood. To understand the neural mechanisms of honey bee dance communication, we analyzed t...

In order to study the effects of Nosema ceranae infection on honey bee microRNA (miRNA) expression, we deep-sequenced honey bee miRNAs daily across a full 6-day parasite reproduction cycle. Seventeen miRNAs were differentially expressed in honey bees infected by N. ceranae that potentially target over 400 genes predicted to primarily involve ion binding, signaling, the nucleus, transmembrane tr...

Agricultural contamination with pesticides and antibiotics is a challenging problem that needs to be fully addressed. Bee products, such as honey, are widely consumed as food and medicine and their contamination may carry serious health hazards. Honey and other bee products are polluted by pesticides, heavy metals, bacteria and radioactive materials. Pesticide residues cause genetic mutations a...

Introduction Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman (2000) is an ectoparasitic mite which causes severe damage to Apis mellifera populations worldwide. Adult females of V. destructor feed directly on the haemolymph of honey bee pupae and can activate and transmit honeybee viruses. Infestation causes an increased prevalence of bee diseases and colony mortality, resulting in decline of honey produc...

Understanding which flowers honey bees (Apis mellifera) use for forage can help us to provide suitable plants for healthy honey bee colonies. Accordingly, honey DNA metabarcoding provides a valuable tool for investigating pollen and nectar collection. We investigated early season (April and May) floral choice by honey bees provided with a very high diversity of flowering plants within the Natio...

European honey bees Apis mellifera are important commercial pollinators that have suffered greater than normal overwintering losses since 2007 in North America and Europe. Contributing factors likely include a combination of parasites, pesticides, and poor nutrition. We examined diet diversity, diet nutritional quality, and pesticides in honey bee-collected pollen from commercial colonies in th...

Intensive agricultural systems often expose honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) to large temporal variations in the availability (quantity, quality and diversity) of nutritional resources. Such nutritional irregularity is expected to affect honey bee health. We therefore tested under laboratory conditions the effect of such variation in pollen availability on honey bee health (survival and nursing p...

The current research aimed to quantify melittin (MEL) in Iranian honey bee (Apis mellifera meda) venom. To this end, a liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-IT-MS/MS) approach was employed. Melittin is the main toxic peptide of honey bee venom with various biological and pharmacological activities. It was extracted with...

PREFERENCE OF HONEY BEES, CARPENTER BEES, AND BUMBLE BEES FOR NEW CROPS IN VIRGINIA. Mark Kraemer & Harbans Bhardwaj, Agricultural Research Station, Virginia State Univ., Petersburg, VA 23806. Agricultural crops may provide important nectar and pollen resources for native bees and the European honey bee, especially during the mid to late summer period when forage resources are limited. In some ...

PREFERENCE OF HONEY BEES, CARPENTER BEES, AND BUMBLE BEES FOR NEW CROPS IN VIRGINIA. Mark Kraemer & Harbans Bhardwaj, Agricultural Research Station, Virginia State Univ., Petersburg, VA 23806. Agricultural crops may provide important nectar and pollen resources for native bees and the European honey bee, especially during the mid to late summer period when forage resources are limited. In some ...