Honeybees (Apis mellifera) undergo iron biomineralization, providing the basis for magnetoreception. We showed earlier the presence of superparamagnetic magnetite in iron granules formed in honeybees, and subscribed to the notion that external magnetic fields may cause expansion or contraction of the superparamagnetic particles in an orientation-specific manner, relaying the signal via cytoskel...

European governments have banned the use of three common neonicotinoid pesticides due to insufficiently identified risks to bees. This policy decision is controversial given the absence of clear consistency between toxicity assessments of those substances in the laboratory and in the field. Although laboratory trials report deleterious effects in honeybees at trace levels, field surveys reveal ...

When honeybees are presented with a colour discrimination task, they tend to choose swiftly and accurately when objects are presented in the ventral part of their frontal visual field. In contrast, poor performance is observed when objects appear in the dorsal part. Here we investigate if this asymmetry is caused by fixed search patterns or if bees can increase their detection ability of object...

When honeybees are presented with a colour discrimination task, they tend to choose swiftly and accurately when objects are presented in the ventral part of their frontal visual field. In contrast, poor performance is observed when objects appear in the dorsal part. Here we investigate if this asymmetry is caused by fixed search patterns or if bees can use alternative search mechanisms such as ...

This work studies the acute contact toxicity of oxalic acid (OA) on a honeybee polyhybrid subspecies (Apis mellifera), which is the dominant biotype in southwestern zone of Uruguay (SWZU) and the country’s most important honey-producing region. We determined the mean lethal dose (LD50), as well as the no observed effect level (NOEL) and the lowest observed effect level (LOEL) values. We also es...

Honeybees are well known for their complex division of labor. Each bee sequentially performs a series of social tasks during its life. The changes in social task performance are linked to gross differences in behavior and physiology. We tested whether honeybees performing different social tasks (nursing versus foraging) would differ in their gustatory responsiveness and associative learning beh...

Honeybees, termites and ants occupy the 'pinnacle of social evolution' with societies of a complexity that rivals our own. The sequencing of the honeybee genome will provide a strong foundation for studying the genetic basis of complex social behavior.

Royalactin, a component of royal jelly, induces queen differentiation in honeybees. Surprisingly, royalactin has a similar effect on growth in fruit flies, highlighting many unexpected features of growth regulation by the insect fat tissue.

Australian crab spiders Thomisus spectabilis ambush pollinating insects, such as honeybees (Apis mellifera) on flowers, and can change their body colour between yellow and white. It is traditionally assumed that the spiders change their colour to match the flower colour, thus rendering them cryptic to insect prey. Here, we test this assumption combining state-of-the-art knowledge of bee vision ...