Social insects are emerging models for epigenetics. Here we examine the link between monoallelic methylation and monoallelic expression in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris using whole methylome and transcriptome analysis. We found nineteen genes displaying monoallelic methylation and expression. They were enriched for functions to do with social organisation in the social insects. These are the ...

Workers of two bumblebee species, Bombus terrestris L. and B. pascuorum Scopoli, had to find the way of escape out of a test tube closed with a paper membrane stretched against its open end. Nearly all of the tested individuals solved successfully that task by tearing a hole in the membrane closing the tube. However, their escape behaviour showed significant interspecific differences. B. terres...

Habitat fragmentation can have severe effects on plant pollinator interactions, for example changing the foraging behaviour of pollinators. To date, the impact of plant population size on pollen collection by pollinators has not yet been investigated. From 2008 to 2010, we monitored nine bumble bee species (Bombus campestris, Bombus hortorum s.l., Bombus hypnorum, Bombus lapidarius, Bombus pasc...

Methylation has previously been associated with allele specific expression in ants. Recently, we found methylation is important in worker reproduction in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris. Here we searched for allele specific expression in twelve genes associated with worker reproduction in bees. We found allele specific expression in Ecdysone 20 monooxygenase and IMP-L2-like. Although we were un...

Secretions of three different glands (mandibular gland, labial gland, and Dufour's gland) of virgin queens of five bumblebee species (Bombus lucorum, B. lapidarius, B. hypnorum, B. pascuorum, and B. terrestris) were analysed. Around 200 compounds were identified in the secretions. The compositions of the secretions of labial and mandibular glands were species-specific. Dufour's gland of all spe...

Investigating the impact of deploying commercial Bombus terrestris for crop pollination on pathogen dynamics in wild bumble bees Penelope R Whitehorn, Matthew C Tinsley, Mark J F Brown and Dave Goulson Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK. School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK. Current addres...

Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) are important pollinators of crops and wildflowers, but many species have suffered dramatic declines in recent decades. Strategies for their conservation require knowledge of their foraging range and nesting density, both of which are poorly understood. Previous studies have mainly focussed on the cosmopolitan bumblebee species Bombus terrestris , and implicitly...

We have found that foraging bumblebees (Bombus hortorum, B. pascuorum, B. pratorum and B. terrestris) not only avoid ̄owers of Symphytum ocinale that have recently been visited by conspeci®cs but also those that have been recently visited by heterospeci®cs. We propose that the decision whether to reject or accept a ̄ower is in ̄uenced by a chemical odour that is left on the corolla by a forager...