We tested a hypothesis originating with Darwin that bees outside the nest exhibit social learning in flower choices. Naive bumblebees, Bombus impatiens, were allowed to observe trained bees or artificial bees forage from orange or green flowers. Subsequently, observers of bees on green flowers landed more often on green flowers than non-observing controls or observers of models on orange flower...

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...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Although urban gardens provide opportunities for pollinators in an otherwise inhospitable environment, most garden plants are not native to the recipient biogeographical region and their value to local pollinators is disputed. This study tested the hypothesis that bumblebees foraging in English urban gardens preferentially visited sympatric Palaearctic-range plants over spec...

1. Over a million commercially produced bumblebee colonies are imported annually on a global scale for the pollination of greenhouse crops. After importation, they interact with other pollinators, with an associated risk of any parasites they carry infecting and harming native bees. National and supranational regulations are designed to prevent this, and commercially produced bumblebee colonies...

Floral resource quantity in agricultural landscapes plays a key role the persistence of wild pollinators. An equally important, but less investigated factor is how variation floral availability over time, e.g. pulses, affects pollinator abundances and diversity. Despite potential importance late-season pulses for bumblebee reproduction, few studies have evaluated effects mass-flowering crops on...

Bumblebees are important pollinators for crops and wild flowering plants. Various pesticides have threatened the abundance diversity of bumblebees. In addition to direct sublethal effects, may alter gut microbial communities bees. Imidacloprid flupyradifurone insecticides both bind nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. However, latter was assumed be harmless honeybees can even applied crops. this s...

BACKGROUND Accurate estimates of movement behavior and distances travelled by animals are difficult to obtain, especially for small-bodied insects where transmitter weights have prevented the use of radio-tracking. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Here, we report the first successful use of micro radio telemetry to track flight distances and space use of bumblebees. Using ground surveys and Ces...

To control flight, flying insects extract information from the pattern of visual motion generated during flight, known as optic flow. To regulate their ground speed, insects such as honeybees and Drosophila hold the rate of optic flow in the axial direction (front-to-back) constant. A consequence of this strategy is that its performance varies with the minimum viewing angle (the deviation from ...

Limit=250 words To accurately estimate exposure of bees to pesticides, analytical methods are needed to enable quantification of ng/g (ppb) levels of contaminants in small samples of pollen or the individual insects. A modified QuEChERS extraction method coupled with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) analysis was tested to quantify residues of 1...