The outcome of defence by the invertebrate immunity has recently been shown to be more complex than previously thought. In particular, the outcome is affected by biotic and abiotic environmental variation, host genotype, parasite genotype and their interaction. Knowledge of conditions under which environmental variation affects the outcome of an infection is one important question that relates ...

A number of image recognition systems have been specifically formulated for the individual recognition of large animals. These programs are versatile and can easily be adapted for the identification of smaller individuals such as insects. The Interactive Individual Identification System, I3S Classic, initially produced for the identification of individual whale sharks was employed to distinguis...

The innate immune system provides defence against parasites and pathogens. This defence comes at a cost, suggesting that immune function should exhibit plasticity in response to variation in environmental threats. Density-dependent prophylaxis (DDP) has been demonstrated mostly in phase-polyphenic insects, where larval group size determines levels of immune function in either adults or later la...

Strawberries are popular fruits around the world, and their yield fruit quality rely on pollination by honey bees bumblebee colonies. Both bee species have own advantages in strawberry pollination. This study investigates characteristic of (Fragaria × ananassa ‘Red Face’) flower volatiles effects pollinators (1) detecting volatile compounds flowers polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) combined gas chrom...

Detecting functional homology between invertebrate and vertebrate immunity is of interest in terms of understanding the dynamics and evolution of immune systems. Trans-generational effects on immunity are well known from vertebrates, but their existence in invertebrates remains controversial. Earlier work on invertebrates has interpreted increased offspring resistance to pathogens as trans-gene...

Animals collecting patchily distributed resources are faced with complex multi-location routing problems. Rather than comparing all possible routes, they often find reasonably short solutions by simply moving to the nearest unvisited resources when foraging. Here, we report the travel optimization performance of bumble-bees (Bombus terrestris) foraging in a flight cage containing six artificial...

In order to assess the risk that insecticidal transgenic plants may pose for bumblebees, we tested whether Bombus terrestris (L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) workers are able to detect insecticidal proteins dissolved in sucrose solution and whether consumption of these proteins will affect survival and offspring production. Feeders containing either Bacillus thuringiensis toxin (Cry1Ab), Kunitz soybe...

Pollinators in agricultural landscapes can be exposed to mixtures of pesticides and environmental pollutants. Existing mixture toxicity modelling approaches, such as the models of concentration addition and independent action and the mechanistic DEBtox framework have been previously shown as valuable tools for understanding and ultimately predicting joint toxicity. Here we apply these mixture m...

The gut microbiome is an important component of bee health. Previous research around the globe indicated that can be affected by presence pathogens. We surveyed for three specific pathogens in populations buff-tailed bumble bee, Bombus terrestris (Linnaeus, 1758), across New Zealand. pathogen Crithidia bombi was most prevalent and widespread studied sites, with prevalence ranging from 30 to 100...