| cloning and expression analysis of a transformer gene in daphnia pulex during different reproduction stages. | the full-length cdna of a transformer gene (dptra) was cloned from the cladoceran daphnia pulex using race. dptra expression was assessed by qpcr and whole-mount in situ hybridization in different reproductive stages. the dptra cdna, 1652bp in length, has a 1158-bp open reading frame that encodes a 385 amino acid polypeptide containing one sex determination protein n terminal (sdp_n) superfamily, eight putative phosphorylation sites, and an arginine-serine (rs)-rich domain at the n-terminus. dpt ... | 2014 | 24725535 |
| infections of virulent and avirulent viruses differentially influenced the expression of dicer-1, ago-1, and micrornas in bombus terrestris. | the microrna (mirna) pathway is well established to be involved in host-pathogen interactions. as key insect pollinators, bees are suffering from widely spreading viruses, especially honeybees and bumblebees. in order to better understand bee-virus interaction, we comparatively analyzed the involvement of the bumblebee mirna pathway upon infection by two different viruses. in our setup, an avirulent infection is induced by slow bee paralysis virus (sbpv) and a virulent infection is induced by is ... | 2017 | 28374846 |
| micrornas associated with caste determination and differentiation in a primitively eusocial insect. | in eusocial hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), queen and worker adult castes typically arise via environmental influences. a fundamental challenge is to understand how a single genome can thereby produce alternative phenotypes. a powerful approach is to compare the molecular basis of caste determination and differentiation along the evolutionary trajectory between primitively and advanced eusocial species, which have, respectively, relatively undifferentiated and strongly differentiated adult c ... | 2017 | 28361900 |
| condition-dependent virulence of slow bee paralysis virus in bombus terrestris: are the impacts of honeybee viruses in wild pollinators underestimated? | slow bee paralysis virus (sbpv)-previously considered an obligate honeybee disease-is now known to be prevalent in bumblebee species. sbpv is highly virulent in honeybees in association with varroa mites, but has been considered relatively benign otherwise. however, condition-dependent pathogens can appear asymptomatic under good, resource abundant conditions, and negative impacts on host fitness may only become apparent when under stressful or resource-limited conditions. we tested whether sbpv ... | 2017 | 28361244 |
| the combined effects of a monotonous diet and exposure to thiamethoxam on the performance of bumblebee micro-colonies. | there is a pressing need to better understand the factors contributing to declines of wild pollinators such as bumblebees. many different contributors have been postulated including: loss of flower-rich habitats and nesting sites; monotonous diets; impacts of invasive pathogens; exposure to pesticides such as neonicotinoids. past research has tended to investigate the impacts of these stressors in isolation, despite the increasing recognition that bees are simultaneously exposed to a combination ... | 2017 | 28135666 |
| direct determination of the mutation rate in the bumblebee reveals evidence for weak recombination-associated mutation and an approximate rate constancy in insects. | accurate knowledge of the mutation rate provides a base line for inferring expected rates of evolution, for testing evolutionary hypotheses and for estimation of key parameters. advances in sequencing technology now permit direct estimates of the mutation rate from sequencing of close relatives. within insects there have been three prior such estimates, two in nonsocial insects (drosophila: 2.8 × 10(-)(9) per bp per haploid genome per generation; heliconius: 2.9 × 10(-)(9)) and one in a social s ... | 2017 | 28007973 |
| male bumblebees perform learning flights on leaving a flower but not when leaving their nest. | female bees and wasps demonstrate, through their performance of elaborate learning flights, when and where they memorise features of a significant site. an important feature of these flights is that the insects look back to fixate the site that they are leaving. females, which forage for nectar and pollen and return with it to the nest, execute learning flights on their initial departure from both their nest and newly discovered flowers. to our knowledge, these flights have so far only been stud ... | 2017 | 27994042 |
| effect of acute pesticide exposure on bee spatial working memory using an analogue of the radial-arm maze. | pesticides, including neonicotinoids, typically target pest insects by being neurotoxic. inadvertent exposure to foraging insect pollinators is usually sub-lethal, but may affect cognition. one cognitive trait, spatial working memory, may be important in avoiding previously-visited flowers and other spatial tasks such as navigation. to test this, we investigated the effect of acute thiamethoxam exposure on spatial working memory in the bumblebee bombus terrestris, using an adaptation of the radi ... | 2016 | 27958350 |
| herbivore-induced dna demethylation changes floral signalling and attractiveness to pollinators in brassica rapa. | plants have to fine-tune their signals to optimise the trade-off between herbivore deterrence and pollinator attraction. an important mechanism in mediating plant-insect interactions is the regulation of gene expression via dna methylation. however, the effect of herbivore-induced dna methylation changes on pollinator-relevant plant signalling has not been systematically investigated. here, we assessed the impact of foliar herbivory on dna methylation and floral traits in the model crop plant br ... | 2016 | 27870873 |
| investigating the impacts of field-realistic exposure to a neonicotinoid pesticide on bumblebee foraging, homing ability and colony growth. | the ability to forage and return home is essential to the success of bees as both foragers and pollinators. pesticide exposure may cause behavioural changes that interfere with these processes, with consequences for colony persistence and delivery of pollination services.we investigated the impact of chronic exposure (5-43 days) to field-realistic levels of a neonicotinoid insecticide (2·4 ppb thiamethoxam) on foraging ability, homing success and colony size using radio frequency identification ... | 2016 | 27867216 |
| comparative toxicity of pesticides and environmental contaminants in bees: are honey bees a useful proxy for wild bee species? | threats to wild and managed insect pollinators in europe are cause for both ecological and socio-economic concern. multiple anthropogenic pressures may be exacerbating pollinator declines. one key pressure is exposure to chemicals including pesticides and other contaminants. historically the honey bee (apis mellifera spp.) has been used as an 'indicator' species for 'standard' ecotoxicological testing but it has been suggested that it is not always a good proxy for other types of eusocial and so ... | 2017 | 27847190 |
| review of field and monitoring studies investigating the role of nitro-substituted neonicotinoid insecticides in the reported losses of honey bee colonies (apis mellifera). | the nitro-substituted neonicotinoid insecticides, which include imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and clothianidin, are widely used to control a range of important agricultural pests both by foliar applications and also as seed dressings and by soil application. since they exhibit systemic properties, exposure of bees may occur as a result of residues present in the nectar and/or pollen of seed- or soil-treated crop plants and so they have been the subject of much debate about whether they cause advers ... | 2016 | 27709399 |
| large-scale monitoring of effects of clothianidin dressed oilseed rape seeds on pollinating insects in northern germany: implementation of the monitoring project and its representativeness. | monitoring studies at the landscape level are complex, expensive and difficult to conduct. many aspects have to be considered to avoid confounding effects which is probably the reason why they are not regularly performed in the context of risk assessments of plant protection products to pollinating insects. however, if conducted appropriately their contribution is most valuable. in this paper we identify the requirements of a large-scale monitoring study for the assessment of side-effects of clo ... | 2016 | 27678527 |
| large-scale monitoring of effects of clothianidin-dressed osr seeds on pollinating insects in northern germany: effects on large earth bumble bees (bombus terrestris). | the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of elado(®)-dressed winter oilseed rape (osr, 10 g clothianidin & 2 g beta-cyfluthrin/kg seed) on the development, reproduction and behaviour of large earth bumble bees (bombus terrestris) as part of a large-scale monitoring field study in northern germany, where osr is usually cultivated at 25-33 % of the arable land. both reference and test sites comprised 65 km(2) in which no other crops attractive to pollinating insects were present. six s ... | 2016 | 27678526 |
| bumble bees regulate their intake of essential protein and lipid pollen macronutrients. | bee population declines are linked to the reduction of nutritional resources due to land-use intensification, yet we know little about the specific nutritional needs of many bee species. pollen provides bees with their primary source of protein and lipids, but nutritional quality varies widely among host-plant species. therefore, bees might have adapted to assess resource quality and adjust their foraging behavior to balance nutrition from multiple food sources. we tested the ability of two bumb ... | 2016 | 27742891 |
| is non-host pollen suitable for generalist bumblebees? | current evidence suggests that pollen is both chemically and structurally protected. despite increasing interest in studying bee-flower networks, the constraints for bee development related to pollen nutritional content, toxicity and digestibility as well as their role in the shaping of bee-flower interactions have been poorly studied. in this study we combined bioassays of the generalist bee bombus terrestris on pollen of cirsium, trifolium, salix, and cistus genera with an assessment of nutrit ... | 2016 | 27731933 |
| interspecific sensitivity of bees towards dimethoate and implications for environmental risk assessment. | wild and domesticated bee species are exposed to a variety of pesticides which may drive pollinator decline. due to wild bee sensitivity data shortage, it is unclear if the honey bee apis mellifera is a suitable surrogate species in the current eu risk assessment scheme. furthermore, the underlying causes for sensitivity differences in bees are not established. we assessed the acute toxicity (median lethal dose, ld50) of dimethoate towards multiple bee species, generated a species sensitivity di ... | 2016 | 27686060 |
| synergistic mortality between a neonicotinoid insecticide and an ergosterol-biosynthesis-inhibiting fungicide in three bee species. | neonicotinoid insecticides have been identified as an important factor contributing to bee diversity declines. nonetheless, uncertainties remain about their impact under field conditions. most studies have been conducted on apis mellifera and tested single compounds. however, in agricultural environments, bees are often exposed to multiple pesticides. we explore the synergistic mortality between a neonicotinoid (clothianidin) and an ergosterol-biosynthesis-inhibiting fungicide (propiconazole) in ... | 2016 | 27685544 |
| chronic exposure to a neonicotinoid pesticide alters the interactions between bumblebees and wild plants. | insect pollinators are essential for both the production of a large proportion of world crops and the health of natural ecosystems. as important pollinators, bumblebees must learn to forage on flowers to feed both themselves and provision their colonies.increased use of pesticides has caused concern over sublethal effects on bees, such as impacts on reproduction or learning ability. however, little is known about how sublethal exposure to field-realistic levels of pesticide might affect the abil ... | 2016 | 27512241 |
| a novel behavioral assay to investigate gustatory responses of individual, freely-moving bumble bees (bombus terrestris). | generalist pollinators like the buff-tailed bumble bee, bombus terrestris, encounter both nutrients and toxins in the floral nectar they collect from flowering plants. only a few studies have described the gustatory responses of bees toward toxins in food, and these experiments have mainly used the proboscis extension response on restrained honey bees. here, a new behavioral assay is presented for measuring the feeding responses of freely-moving, individual worker bumble bees to nutrients and to ... | 2016 | 27500630 |
| life-long radar tracking of bumblebees. | insect pollinators such as bumblebees play a vital role in many ecosystems, so it is important to understand their foraging movements on a landscape scale. we used harmonic radar to record the natural foraging behaviour of bombus terrestris audax workers over their entire foraging career. every flight ever made outside the nest by four foragers was recorded. our data reveal where the bees flew and how their behaviour changed with experience, at an unprecedented level of detail. we identified how ... | 2016 | 27490662 |
| effects of habitat composition and landscape structure on worker foraging distances of five bumble bee species. | bumble bees (bombus spp.) are important pollinators of both crops and wildflowers. their contribution to this essential ecosystem service has been threatened over recent decades by changes in land use, which have led to declines in their populations. in order to design effective conservation measures, it is important to understand the effects of variation in landscape composition and structure on the foraging activities of worker bumble bees. this is because the viability of individual colonies ... | 2016 | 27411246 |
| israeli acute paralysis virus associated paralysis symptoms, viral tissue distribution and dicer-2 induction in bumblebee workers (bombus terrestris). | although it is known that israeli acute paralysis virus (iapv) can cause bee mortality, the symptoms of paralysis and the distribution of the virus in different body tissues and their potential to respond with an increase of the sirna antiviral immune system have not been studied. in this project we worked with bombus terrestris, which is one of the most numerous bumblebee species in europe and an important pollinator for wild flowers and many crops in agriculture. besides the classic symptoms o ... | 2016 | 27230225 |
| brevibacillus laterosporus inside the insect body: beneficial resident or pathogenic outsider? | brevibacillus laterosporus is an entomopathogenic bacterium showing varying degrees of virulence against diverse insect pests. conversely, it is regarded as a beneficial component of the intestinal flora in different animals and in some insect species including the honeybee. b. laterosporus was detected through a species-specific pcr assay in the body of different insects, including apis mellifera and bombus terrestris. a strain isolated from a honeybee worker was pathogenic to the house fly mus ... | 2016 | 27180901 |
| chemical reproductive traits of diploid bombus terrestris males: consequences on bumblebee conservation. | the current bumblebee decline leads to inbreeding in populations that fosters a loss of allelic diversity and diploid male production. as diploid males are viable and their offspring are sterile, bumblebee populations can quickly fall in a vortex of extinction. in this paper, we investigate for the first time a potential pre-mating mechanism through a major chemical reproductive trait (male cephalic labial gland secretions) that could prevent monandrous virgin queens from mating with diploid mal ... | 2016 | 26953256 |
| spatial vision in bombus terrestris. | bombus terrestris is one of the most commonly used insect models to investigate visually guided behavior and spatial vision in particular. two fundamental measures of spatial vision are spatial resolution and contrast sensitivity. in this study, we report the threshold of spatial resolution in b. terrestris and characterize the contrast sensitivity function of the bumblebee visual system for a dual choice discrimination task. we trained bumblebees in a y-maze experimental set-up to associate a v ... | 2016 | 26912998 |
| gene expression differences in relation to age and social environment in queen and worker bumble bees. | eusocial insects provide special insights into the genetic pathways influencing aging because of their long-lived queens and flexible aging schedules. using qrt-pcr in the primitively eusocial bumble bee bombus terrestris (linnaeus), we investigated expression levels of four candidate genes associated with taxonomically widespread age-related pathways (coenzyme q biosynthesis protein 7, coq7; dna methyltransferase 3, dnmt3; foraging, for; and vitellogenin, vg). in experiment 1, we tested how exp ... | 2016 | 26883339 |
| queen pheromones modulate dna methyltransferase activity in bee and ant workers. | dna methylation is emerging as an important regulator of polyphenism in the social insects. research has concentrated on differences in methylation between queens and workers, though we hypothesized that methylation is involved in mediating other flexible phenotypes, including pheromone-dependent changes in worker behaviour and physiology. here, we find that exposure to queen pheromone affects the expression of two dna methyltransferase genes in apis mellifera honeybees and in two species of las ... | 2016 | 26814223 |
| in vivo study of dicer-2-mediated immune response of the small interfering rna pathway upon systemic infections of virulent and avirulent viruses in bombus terrestris. | recent studies suggest a potent role of the small interfering rna (sirna) pathway in the control of bee viruses and its usefulness to tackle these viral diseases. however, the involvement of the sirna pathway in the defense against different bee viruses is still poorly understood. therefore, in this report, we comprehensively analyzed the response of the sirna pathway in bumblebees of bombus terrestris to systemic infections of the virulent israeli acute paralysis virus (iapv) and the avirulent ... | 2016 | 26711439 |
| a new threat to bees? entomopathogenic nematodes used in biological pest control cause rapid mortality in bombus terrestris. | there is currently a great deal of concern about population declines in pollinating insects. many potential threats have been identified which may adversely affect the behaviour and health of both honey bees and bumble bees: these include pesticide exposure, and parasites and pathogens. whether biological pest control agents adversely affect bees has been much less well studied: it is generally assumed that biological agents are safer for wildlife than chemical pesticides. the aim of this study ... | 2015 | 26618084 |
| flight control and landing precision in the nocturnal bee megalopta is robust to large changes in light intensity. | like their diurnal relatives, megalopta genalis use visual information to control flight. unlike their diurnal relatives, however, they do this at extremely low light intensities. although megalopta has developed optical specializations to increase visual sensitivity, theoretical studies suggest that this enhanced sensitivity does not enable them to capture enough light to use visual information to reliably control flight in the rainforest at night. it has been proposed that megalopta gain extra ... | 2015 | 26578977 |
| conservation and modification of genetic and physiological toolkits underpinning diapause in bumble bee queens. | diapause is the key adaptation allowing insects to survive unfavourable conditions and inhabit an array of environments. physiological changes during diapause are largely conserved across species and are hypothesized to be regulated by a conserved suite of genes (a 'toolkit'). furthermore, it is hypothesized that in social insects, this toolkit was co-opted to mediate caste differentiation between long-lived, reproductive, diapause-capable queens and short-lived, sterile workers. using bombus te ... | 2015 | 26453894 |
| dumb and lazy? a comparison of color learning and memory retrieval in drones and workers of the buff-tailed bumblebee, bombus terrestris, by means of per conditioning. | more than 100 years ago, karl von frisch showed that honeybee workers learn and discriminate colors. since then, many studies confirmed the color learning capabilities of females from various hymenopteran species. yet, little is known about visual learning and memory in males despite the fact that in most bee species males must take care of their own needs and must find rewarding flowers to obtain food. here we used the proboscis extension response (per) paradigm to study the color learning capa ... | 2015 | 26230643 |
| how to know which food is good for you: bumblebees use taste to discriminate between different concentrations of food differing in nutrient content. | in view of the ongoing pollinator decline, the role of nutrition in bee health has received increasing attention. bees obtain fat, carbohydrates and protein from pollen and nectar. as both excessive and deficient amounts of these macronutrients are detrimental, bees would benefit from assessing food quality to guarantee an optimal nutrient supply. while bees can detect sucrose and use it to assess nectar quality, it is unknown whether they can assess the macronutrient content of pollen. previous ... | 2015 | 26202778 |
| unraveling the venom proteome of the bumblebee (bombus terrestris) by integrating a combinatorial peptide ligand library approach with ft-icr ms. | within the apidae, the largest family of bees with over 5600 described species, the honeybee is the sole species with a well studied venom proteome. so far, only little research has focused on bumblebee venom. recently, the genome sequence of the european large earth bumblebee (bombus terrestris) became available and this allowed the first in-depth proteomic analysis of its venom composition. we identified 57 compounds, with 52 of them never described in bumblebee venom. remarkably, 72% of the d ... | 2015 | 26071081 |
| reproductive workers show queenlike gene expression in an intermediately eusocial insect, the buff-tailed bumble bee bombus terrestris. | bumble bees represent a taxon with an intermediate level of eusociality within hymenoptera. the clear division of reproduction between a single founding queen and the largely sterile workers is characteristic for highly eusocial species, whereas the morphological similarity between the bumble bee queen and the workers is typical for more primitively eusocial hymenopterans. also, unlike other highly eusocial hymenopterans, division of labour among worker subcastes is plastic and not predetermined ... | 2015 | 25913260 |
| bees prefer foods containing neonicotinoid pesticides. | the impact of neonicotinoid insecticides on insect pollinators is highly controversial. sublethal concentrations alter the behaviour of social bees and reduce survival of entire colonies. however, critics argue that the reported negative effects only arise from neonicotinoid concentrations that are greater than those found in the nectar and pollen of pesticide-treated plants. furthermore, it has been suggested that bees could choose to forage on other available flowers and hence avoid or dilute ... | 2015 | 25901684 |
| chronic exposure to neonicotinoids increases neuronal vulnerability to mitochondrial dysfunction in the bumblebee (bombus terrestris). | the global decline in the abundance and diversity of insect pollinators could result from habitat loss, disease, and pesticide exposure. the contribution of the neonicotinoid insecticides (e.g., clothianidin and imidacloprid) to this decline is controversial, and key to understanding their risk is whether the astonishingly low levels found in the nectar and pollen of plants is sufficient to deliver neuroactive levels to their site of action: the bee brain. here we show that bumblebees (bombus te ... | 2015 | 25634958 |
| nutrient balancing of the adult worker bumblebee (bombus terrestris) depends on the dietary source of essential amino acids. | animals carefully regulate the amount of protein that they consume. the quantity of individual essential amino acids (eaas) obtained from dietary protein depends on the protein source, but how the proportion of eaas in the diet affects nutrient balancing has rarely been studied. recent research using the geometric framework for nutrition has revealed that forager honeybees who receive much of their dietary eaas from floral nectar and not from solid protein have relatively low requirements for di ... | 2015 | 25617453 |
| insect vision models under scrutiny: what bumblebees (bombus terrestris terrestris l.) can still tell us. | three contending models address the ability of bees to detect and discriminate colours: the colour opponent coding (coc) model, the colour hexagon (ch) model and the receptor noise-limited (rn) model, but few studies attempt to determine which model fits experimental data best. to assess whether the models provide an accurate description of bumblebee colour space, we trained bees to discriminate four colour pairs. the perceptual distance between the colours of each pair was similar according to ... | 2015 | 25613579 |
| bees use honest floral signals as indicators of reward when visiting flowers. | pollinators visit flowers for rewards and should therefore have a preference for floral signals that indicate reward status, so called 'honest signals'. we investigated honest signalling in brassica rapa l. and its relevance for the attraction of a generalised pollinator, the bumble bee bombus terrestris (l.). we found a positive association between reward amount (nectar sugar and pollen) and the floral scent compound phenylacetaldehyde. bumble bees developed a preference for phenylacetaldehyde ... | 2015 | 25491788 |
| flies as pollinators of melittophilous salvia species (lamiaceae). | • | 2014 | 25480711 |
| lethal and sublethal effects of azadirachtin on the bumblebee bombus terrestris (hymenoptera: apidae). | azadirachtin is a biorational insecticide commonly reported as selective to a range of beneficial insects. nonetheless, only few studies have been carried out with pollinators, usually emphasizing the honeybee apis mellifera and neglecting other important pollinator species such as the bumblebee bombus terrestris. here, lethal and sublethal effects of azadirachtin were studied on b. terrestris via oral exposure in the laboratory to bring out the potential risks of the compound to this important ... | 2015 | 25300506 |
| the effect of caste and reproductive state on the chemistry of the cephalic labial glands secretion of bombus terrestris. | the cephalic labial glands are well developed in many bee species. in bumble bee males, they cover most of the head volume, and their secretion is used in marking reproductive territories and attracting virgin queens. in females, however, they are poorly studied. here, we present chemical analyses of their secretion in queens and workers of bombus terrestris under various social conditions. the secretion revealed a context-dependent composition with sterile females possessing large amounts of fa ... | 2014 | 25119875 |
| precocene-i inhibits juvenile hormone biosynthesis, ovarian activation, aggression and alters sterility signal production in bumble bee (bombus terrestris) workers. | juvenile hormone (jh) is an important regulator of development and physiology in insects. while in many insect species, including bumble bees, jh functions as gonadotropin in adults, in some highly eusocial insects its role has shifted to regulate social behavior including division of labor, dominance and aggression. studying jh functions across social insect species is important for understanding the evolution of sociality; however, these studies have been limited because of the inability to re ... | 2014 | 25013106 |
| gonadotropic and physiological functions of juvenile hormone in bumblebee (bombus terrestris) workers. | the evolution of advanced sociality in bees is associated with apparent modifications in juvenile hormone (jh) signaling. by contrast to most insects in which jh is a gonadotropin regulating female fertility, in the highly eusocial honey bee (apis mellifera) jh has lost its gonadotrophic function in adult females, and instead regulates age-related division of labor among worker bees. in order to shed light on the evolution of jh signaling in bees we performed allatectomy and replacement therapie ... | 2014 | 24959888 |
| herbivore defence compounds occur in pollen and reduce bumblebee colony fitness. | herbivory defence chemicals in plants can affect higher trophic levels such as predators and parasitoids, but the impact on pollinators has been overlooked. we show that defensive plant chemicals can damage pollinator fitness when expressed in pollen. crop lupins (lupinus species from europe and south america) accumulate toxic quinolizidine alkaloids in vegetative tissues, conferring resistance to herbivorous pests such as aphids. we identified the alkaloid lupanine and its derivatives in lupin ... | 2014 | 24952086 |
| bumblebees learn polarization patterns. | foraging insect pollinators such as bees must find and identify flowers in a complex visual environment. bees use skylight polarization patterns for navigation, a capacity mediated by the polarization-sensitive dorsal rim area (dra) of their eye. while other insects use polarization sensitivity to identify appropriate habitats, oviposition sites, and food sources, to date no nonnavigational functions of polarization vision have been identified in bees. here we investigated the ability of bumbleb ... | 2014 | 24909321 |
| foraging errors play a role in resource exploration by bumble bees (bombus terrrestris). | if the cognitive performance of animals reflects their particular ecological requirements, how can we explain appreciable variation in learning ability amongst closely related individuals (e.g. foraging workers within a bumble bee colony)? one possibility is that apparent 'errors' in a learning task actually represent an alternative foraging strategy. in this study we investigate the potential relationship between foraging 'errors' and foraging success among bumble bee (bombus terrestris) worker ... | 2014 | 24838937 |
| lactobacillus bombi sp. nov., from the digestive tract of laboratory-reared bumblebee queens (bombus terrestris). | three bacterial strains belonging to the genus lactobacillus were isolated from the digestive tracts of laboratory-reared bumblebee queens (bombus terrestris) using mrs agar under anaerobic conditions. the isolates were identified according to 16s rrna gene sequence analysis as undescribed members of the genus lactobacillus, with the highest 16s rrna gene sequence similarity (96.9 %) to the uncharacterized bacterial strain lactobacillus sp. mboho2r2 isolated from the stomach of a european honeyb ... | 2014 | 24824637 |
| royal jelly-like protein localization reveals differences in hypopharyngeal glands buildup and conserved expression pattern in brains of bumblebees and honeybees. | royal jelly proteins (mrjps) of the honeybee bear several open questions. one of them is their expression in tissues other than the hypopharyngeal glands (hgs), the site of royal jelly production. the sole mrjp-like gene of the bumblebee, bombus terrestris (btrjpl), represents a pre-diversification stage of the mrjp gene evolution in bees. here we investigate the expression of btrjpl in the hgs and the brain of bumblebees. comparison of the hgs of bumblebees and honeybees revealed striking diffe ... | 2014 | 24682007 |
| exploring the role of juvenile hormone and vitellogenin in reproduction and social behavior in bumble bees. | the genetic and physiological pathways regulating behavior in solitary species are hypothesized to have been co-opted to regulate social behavior in social species. one classic example is the interaction between vitellogenin (an egg-yolk and storage protein) and juvenile hormone, which are positively correlated in most insect species but have modified interactions in highly eusocial insects. in some of these species (including some termites, ants, and the honey bee), juvenile hormone and vitello ... | 2014 | 24618396 |
| cross-linking in the silks of bees, ants and hornets. | silk production is integral to the construction of nests or cocoons for many aculeata, stinging hymenopterans such as ants, bees and wasps. here we report the sequences of new aculeate silk proteins and compare cross-linking among nine native silks from three bee species (apis mellifera, bombus terrestris and megachile rotundata), three ant species (myrmecia forficata, oecophylla smaragdina and harpegnathos saltator) and three hornets (vespa analis, vespa simillima and vespa mandarinia). the wel ... | 2014 | 24607851 |
| changes in learning and foraging behaviour within developing bumble bee (bombus terrestris) colonies. | organisation in eusocial insect colonies emerges from the decisions and actions of its individual members. in turn, these decisions and actions are influenced by the individual's behaviour (or temperament). although there is variation in the behaviour of individuals within a colony, we know surprisingly little about how (or indeed if) the types of behaviour present in a colony change over time. here, for the first time, we assessed potential changes in the behavioural type of foragers during col ... | 2014 | 24599144 |
| molecular heterochrony and the evolution of sociality in bumblebees (bombus terrestris). | sibling care is a hallmark of social insects, but its evolution remains challenging to explain at the molecular level. the hypothesis that sibling care evolved from ancestral maternal care in primitively eusocial insects has been elaborated to involve heterochronic changes in gene expression. this elaboration leads to the prediction that workers in these species will show patterns of gene expression more similar to foundress queens, who express maternal care behaviour, than to established queens ... | 2014 | 24552837 |
| methylation and worker reproduction in the bumble-bee (bombus terrestris). | insects are at the dawn of an epigenetics era. numerous social insect species have been found to possess a functioning methylation system, previously not thought to exist in insects. methylation, an epigenetic tag, may be vital for the sociality and division of labour for which social insects are renowned. in the bumble-bee bombus terrestris, we found methylation differences between the genomes of queenless reproductive workers and queenless non-reproductive workers. in a follow up experiment, q ... | 2014 | 24523266 |
| observational conditioning in flower choice copying by bumblebees (bombus terrestris): influence of observer distance and demonstrator movement. | bumblebees use information provided inadvertently by conspecifics when deciding between different flower foraging options. such social learning might be explained by relatively simple associative learning mechanism: the bee may learn to associate conspecifics with nectar or pollen reward through previous experience of foraging jointly. however, in some studies, observers were guided by choices of 'demonstrators' viewed through a screen, so no reward was given to the observers at the time of seei ... | 2014 | 24516654 |
| specific recognition of reproductive parasite workers by nest-entrance guards in the bumble bee bombus terrestris. | the impact of social parasites on their hosts' fitness is a strong selective pressure that can lead to the evolution of adapted defence strategies. guarding the nest to prevent the intrusion of parasites is a widespread response of host species. if absolute rejection of strangers provides the best protection against parasites, more fine-tuned strategies can prove more adaptive. guarding is indeed costly and not all strangers constitute a real threat. that is particularly true for worker reproduc ... | 2013 | 24321042 |
| effects of the neonicotinoid pesticide thiamethoxam at field-realistic levels on microcolonies of bombus terrestris worker bumble bees. | neonicotinoid pesticides are currently implicated in the decline of wild bee populations. bumble bees, bombus spp., are important wild pollinators that are detrimentally affected by ingestion of neonicotinoid residues. to date, imidacloprid has been the major focus of study into the effects of neonicotinoids on bumble bee health, but wild populations are increasingly exposed to alternative neonicotinoids such as thiamethoxam. to investigate whether environmentally realistic levels of thiamethoxa ... | 2014 | 24238719 |
| repression and recuperation of brood production in bombus terrestris bumble bees exposed to a pulse of the neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid. | currently, there is concern about declining bee populations and some blame the residues of neonicotinoid pesticides in the nectar and pollen of treated crops. bumble bees are important wild pollinators that are widely exposed to dietary neonicotinoids by foraging in agricultural environments. in the laboratory, we tested the effect of a pulsed exposure (14 days 'on dose' followed by 14 days 'off dose') to a common neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, on the amount of brood (number of eggs and larvae) pr ... | 2013 | 24224015 |
| analysis of reference gene stability after israeli acute paralysis virus infection in bumblebees bombus terrestris. | to date, there are no validated internal reference genes for the normalization of rt-qpcr data from virus infection experiments with pollinating insects. in this study we evaluated the stability of five candidate internal reference genes: elongation factor-1-alpha (elf1α), peptidylprolyl isomerase a (ppia), 60s ribosomal protein l23 (rpl23), tata-binding protein (tbp) and polyubiquitin (ubi), in relation to israeli acute paralysis virus (iapv) infection of bombus terrestris. we investigated the ... | 2014 | 24184950 |
| social regulation of maternal traits in nest-founding bumble bee (bombus terrestris) queens. | during the nest-founding phase of the bumble bee colony cycle, queens undergo striking changes in maternal care behavior. early in the founding phase, prior to the emergence of workers in the nest, queens are reproductive and also provision and feed their offspring. however, later in the founding phase, queens reduce their feeding of larvae and become specialized on reproduction. this transition is synchronized with the emergence of workers in the colony, who assume the task of feeding their sib ... | 2013 | 23966589 |
| bumblebee visual search for multiple learned target types. | visual search is well studied in human psychology, but we know comparatively little about similar capacities in non-human animals. it is sometimes assumed that animal visual search is restricted to a single target at a time. in bees, for example, this limitation has been evoked to explain flower constancy, the tendency of bees to specialise on a single flower type. few studies, however, have investigated bee visual search for multiple target types after extended learning and controlling for prio ... | 2013 | 23948481 |
| queen control of a key life-history event in a eusocial insect. | in eusocial insects, inclusive fitness theory predicts potential queen-worker conflict over the timing of events in colony life history. whether queens or workers control the timing of these events is poorly understood. in the bumble-bee bombus terrestris, queens exhibit a 'switch point' in which they switch from laying diploid eggs yielding females (workers and new queens) to laying haploid eggs yielding males. by rearing foundress queens whose worker offspring were removed as pupae and sexing ... | 2013 | 23637392 |
| clearance of ingested neonicotinoid pesticide (imidacloprid) in honey bees (apis mellifera) and bumblebees (bombus terrestris). | bees in agricultural landscapes are exposed to dietary pesticides such as imidacloprid when they feed from treated mass-flowering crops. concern about the consequent impact on bees makes it important to understand their resilience. in the laboratory, the authors therefore fed adult worker bees on dosed syrup (125 μg l(-1) of imidacloprid, or 98 μg kg(-1)) either continuously or as a pulsed exposure and measured their behaviour (feeding and locomotory activity) and whole-body residues. | 2014 | 23633150 |
| the influence of pigmentation patterning on bumblebee foraging from flowers of antirrhinum majus. | patterns of pigmentation overlying the petal vasculature are common in flowering plants and have been postulated to play a role in pollinator attraction. previous studies report that such venation patterning is significantly more attractive to bee foragers in the field than ivory or white flowers without veins. to dissect the ways in which venation patterning of pigment can influence bumblebee behaviour, we investigated the response of flower-naïve individuals of bombus terrestris to veined, ivo ... | 2013 | 23420080 |
| social context and reproductive potential affect worker reproductive decisions in a eusocial insect. | context-dependent decision-making conditions individual plasticity and is an integrant part of alternative reproductive strategies. in eusocial hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), the discovery of worker reproductive parasitism recently challenged the view of workers as a homogeneous collective entity and stressed the need to consider them as autonomous units capable of elaborate choices which influence their fitness returns. the reproductive decisions of individual workers thus need to be inves ... | 2012 | 23251701 |
| bumblebees (bombus terrestris) and honeybees (apis mellifera) prefer similar colours of higher spectral purity over trained colours. | differences in the concentration of pigments as well as their composition and spatial arrangement cause intraspecific variation in the spectral signature of flowers. known colour preferences and requirements for flower-constant foraging bees predict different responses to colour variability. in experimental settings, we simulated small variations of unicoloured petals and variations in the spatial arrangement of colours within tricoloured petals using artificial flowers and studied their impact ... | 2013 | 23224278 |
| the abundance and pollen foraging behaviour of bumble bees in relation to population size of whortleberry (vaccinium uliginosum). | 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 pascuorum, bombus pratorum, bombus soroensis, bombus terrestris s.l., bombus vestalis s.l.) on vaccinium ul ... | 2012 | 23209721 |
| variability in bumblebee pollination buzzes affects the quantity of pollen released from flowers. | buzz-pollination is a plant strategy that promotes gamete transfer by requiring a pollinator, typically bees (hymenoptera: apoidea), to vibrate a flower's anthers in order to extract pollen. although buzz-pollination is widespread in angiosperms with over 20,000 species using it, little is known about the functional connection between natural variation in buzzing vibrations and the amount of pollen that can be extracted from anthers. we characterized variability in the vibrations produced by bom ... | 2013 | 23188056 |
| radar tracking and motion-sensitive cameras on flowers reveal the development of pollinator multi-destination routes over large spatial scales. | central place foragers, such as pollinating bees, typically develop circuits (traplines) to visit multiple foraging sites in a manner that minimizes overall travel distance. despite being taxonomically widespread, these routing behaviours remain poorly understood due to the difficulty of tracking the foraging history of animals in the wild. here we examine how bumblebees (bombus terrestris) develop and optimise traplines over large spatial scales by setting up an array of five artificial flowers ... | 2012 | 23049479 |
| differential sensitivity of honey bees and bumble bees to a dietary insecticide (imidacloprid). | currently, there is concern about declining bee populations and the sustainability of pollination services. one potential threat to bees is the unintended impact of systemic insecticides, which are ingested by bees in the nectar and pollen from flowers of treated crops. to establish whether imidacloprid, a systemic neonicotinoid and insect neurotoxin, harms individual bees when ingested at environmentally realistic levels, we exposed adult worker bumble bees, bombus terrestris l. (hymenoptera: a ... | 2012 | 23044068 |
| effects of fastac 50 ec on bumble bee bombus terrestris l. respiration: dge disappearance does not lead to increasing water loss. | sublethal effects of pesticides in insects can be observed through physiological changes, which are commonly estimated by metabolic rate and respiratory patterns, more precisely by the patterns of discontinuous gas-exchange (dge) cycles. the aim of the present research was to study the effect of some low concentrations of fastac 50 ec on the cycles of co(2) release and respiratory water loss rates (wlr) in bumble bee bombus terrestris l. foragers. bumble bees were dipped into 0.004% and 0.002% f ... | 2012 | 22960306 |
| visual attention in a complex search task differs between honeybees and bumblebees. | mechanisms of spatial attention are used when the amount of gathered information exceeds processing capacity. such mechanisms have been proposed in bees, but have not yet been experimentally demonstrated. we provide evidence that selective attention influences the foraging performance of two social bee species, the honeybee apis mellifera and the bumblebee bombus terrestris. visual search tasks, originally developed for application in human psychology, were adapted for behavioural experiments on ... | 2012 | 22723491 |
| illumination preference, illumination constancy and colour discrimination by bumblebees in an environment with patchy light. | patchy illumination presents foraging animals with a challenge, as the targets being sought may appear to vary in colour depending on the illumination, compromising target identification. we sought to explore how the bumblebee bombus terrestris copes with tasks involving flower colour discrimination under patchy illumination. light patches varied between unobscured daylight and leaf-shade, as a bee might encounter in and around woodland. using a flight arena and coloured filters, as well as one ... | 2012 | 22675177 |
| effects of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide, on reproduction in worker bumble bees (bombus terrestris). | bumble bees are important pollinators whose populations have declined over recent years, raising widespread concern. one conspicuous threat to bumble bees is their unintended exposure to trace residues of systemic neonicotinoid pesticides, such as imidacloprid, which are ingested when bees forage on the nectar and pollen of treated crops. however, the demographic consequences for bumble bees of exposure to dietary neonicotinoids have yet to be fully established. to determine whether environmenta ... | 2012 | 22614036 |
| size-related variation in protein abundance in the brain and abdominal tissue of bumble bee workers. | female bumble bee workers of the same species often show a profound body size variation that is linked to a division of labour. large individuals are more likely to forage whereas small individuals are more likely to perform in-nest activities. a higher sensory sensitivity, stronger circadian rhythms as well as better learning and memory performances appear to better equip large individuals for outdoor activities compared to their smaller siblings. the molecular mechanisms underlying worker func ... | 2012 | 22568679 |
| neonicotinoid pesticide reduces bumble bee colony growth and queen production. | growing evidence for declines in bee populations has caused great concern because of the valuable ecosystem services they provide. neonicotinoid insecticides have been implicated in these declines because they occur at trace levels in the nectar and pollen of crop plants. we exposed colonies of the bumble bee bombus terrestris in the laboratory to field-realistic levels of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid, then allowed them to develop naturally under field conditions. treated colonies had a signif ... | 2012 | 22461500 |
| conspecific and heterospecific information use in bumblebees. | heterospecific social learning has been understudied in comparison to interactions between members of the same species. however, the learning mechanisms behind such information use can allow animals to be flexible in the cues that are used. this raises the question of whether conspecific cues are inherently more influential than cues provided by heterospecifics, or whether animals can simply use any cue that predicts fitness enhancing conditions, including those provided by heterospecifics. to d ... | 2012 | 22347479 |
| mite species inhabiting commercial bumblebee (bombus terrestris) nests in polish greenhouses. | nests of social insects are usually inhabited by various mite species that feed on pollen, other micro-arthropods or are parasitic. well-known negative effects of worldwide economic importance are caused by mites parasitizing honeybee colonies. lately, attention has focused on the endoparasitic mite locustacarus buchneri that has been found in commercial bumblebees. however, little is known of other mites associated with commercial bumblebee nests. transportation of commercial bumblebee colonies ... | 2012 | 22270110 |
| fibrin(ogen)olytic activity of bumblebee venom serine protease. | bee venom is a rich source of pharmacologically active components; it has been used as an immunotherapy to treat bee venom hypersensitivity, and venom therapy has been applied as an alternative medicine. here, we present evidence that the serine protease found in bumblebee venom exhibits fibrin(ogen)olytic activity. compared to honeybee venom, bumblebee venom contains a higher content of serine protease, which is one of its major components. venom serine proteases from bumblebees did not cross-r ... | 2011 | 21763709 |
| lateralization in the invertebrate brain: left-right asymmetry of olfaction in bumble bee, bombus terrestris. | brain and behavioural lateralization at the population level has been recently hypothesized to have evolved under social selective pressures as a strategy to optimize coordination among asymmetrical individuals. evidence for this hypothesis have been collected in hymenoptera: eusocial honey bees showed olfactory lateralization at the population level, whereas solitary mason bees only showed individual-level olfactory lateralization. here we investigated lateralization of odour detection and lear ... | 2011 | 21556150 |
| impacts of the use of nonnative commercial bumble bees for pollinator supplementation in raspberry. | evidence for pollinator declines has led to concern that inadequate pollination services may limit crop yields. the global trade in commercial bumble bee (bombus spp.) colonies provides pollination services for both glasshouse and open-field crops. for example, in the united kingdom, commercial colonies of nonnative subspecies of the bumble bee bombus terrestris l. imported from mainland europe are widely used for the pollination of raspberries, rubus idaeus l. the extent to which these commerci ... | 2011 | 21404847 |
| nocturnal insects use optic flow for flight control. | to avoid collisions when navigating through cluttered environments, flying insects must control their flight so that their sensory systems have time to detect obstacles and avoid them. to do this, day-active insects rely primarily on the pattern of apparent motion generated on the retina during flight (optic flow). however, many flying insects are active at night, when obtaining reliable visual information for flight control presents much more of a challenge. to assess whether nocturnal flying i ... | 2011 | 21307047 |
| a second generation genetic map of the bumblebee bombus terrestris (linnaeus, 1758) reveals slow genome and chromosome evolution in the apidae. | the bumblebee bombus terrestris is an ecologically and economically important pollinator and has become an important biological model system. to study fundamental evolutionary questions at the genomic level, a high resolution genetic linkage map is an essential tool for analyses ranging from quantitative trait loci (qtl) mapping to genome assembly and comparative genomics. we here present a saturated linkage map and match it with the apis mellifera genome using homologous markers. this genome-wi ... | 2011 | 21247459 |
| dna modifications and genome rearrangements during the development and sex differentiation of the bumble bee bombus terrestris. | bombus terrestris is a bumble bee that, like most hymenopteran species, exhibits ploidy-specific sex determination controlled by a single sex gene. depending on their ploidy and the queen pheromone repression, the imagoes differentiate into three castes: males, workers and queens. here, we focus on the differences of genome organization that occur during development and sex differentiation. we found that cytosine methylation is a significant epigenetic factor with profiles that can be correlated ... | 2011 | 20977508 |
| travel optimization by foraging bumblebees through readjustments of traplines after discovery of new feeding locations. | animals collecting resources that replenish over time often visit patches in predictable sequences called traplines. despite the widespread nature of this strategy, we still know little about how spatial memory develops and guides individuals toward suitable routes. here, we investigate whether flower visitation sequences by bumblebees bombus terrestris simply reflect the order in which flowers were discovered or whether they result from more complex navigational strategies enabling bees to opti ... | 2010 | 20973670 |
| profile of the mosaic element btmr1 in the genome of the bumble bee bombus terrestris (hymenoptera: apidae). | co-evolution involving a mariner transposon, botmar1 and the other repeats contained in the bombus terrestris genome was investigated. we found that the 5'-region of botmar1 forms one of the components of a mosaic element, known as b. terrestris mosaic repeat 1 (btmr1), which is also composed of inner segments originating from two different retrotransposons and a pseudogene corresponding to an rna methyltransferase cdna. the fact that btmr1 is interspersed within chromosomes and the differences ... | 2011 | 20958807 |
| winter active bumblebees (bombus terrestris) achieve high foraging rates in urban britain. | foraging bumblebees are normally associated with spring and summer in northern europe. however, there have been sightings of the bumblebee bombus terrestris during the warmer winters in recent years in southern england. but what floral resources are they relying upon during winter and how much winter forage can they collect? | 2010 | 20221445 |
| analysis of a normalised expressed sequence tag (est) library from a key pollinator, the bumblebee bombus terrestris. | the bumblebee, bombus terrestris (order hymenoptera), is of widespread importance. this species is extensively used for commercial pollination in europe, and along with other bombus spp. is a key member of natural pollinator assemblages. furthermore, the species is studied in a wide variety of biological fields. the objective of this project was to create a b. terrestris est resource that will prove to be valuable in obtaining a deeper understanding of this significant social insect. | 2010 | 20156341 |
| visual detection of diminutive floral guides in the bumblebee bombus terrestris and in the honeybee apis mellifera. | many flowers display colour patterns comprising a large peripheral colour area that serves to attract flower visitors from some distance, and a small central, contrastingly coloured area made up by stamens or floral guides. in this study, we scaled down the size of floral guides to detect the minimal size bumblebees (bombus terrestris) and honeybees (apis mellifera) require for guidance. we analyzed the approach and the precise contact of the antennal tips with the floral guide of artificial flo ... | 2009 | 19813017 |
| risk assessment for side-effects of neonicotinoids against bumblebees with and without impairing foraging behavior. | bombus terrestris bumblebees are important pollinators of wild flowers, and in modern agriculture they are used to guarantee pollination of vegetables and fruits. in the field it is likely that worker bees are exposed to pesticides during foraging. to date, several tests exist to assess lethal and sublethal side-effects of pesticides on bee survival, growth/development and reproduction. within the context of ecotoxicology and insect physiology, we report the development of a new bioassay to asse ... | 2010 | 19757031 |
| rapid induction of immune density-dependent prophylaxis in adult social insects. | 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 larval instars. social insects exhibit extreme sociality, but ddp has been suggested to be absent from th ... | 2009 | 19656864 |
| gas exchange patterns of bumble bee foragers before and after exposing to lowered temperature. | the gas exchange patterns are known to vary between insect species, individuals and even intra-individually. using volumetric-manometric and flow-through respirometry combined with ir-actography we studied how periods of low temperature affect the respiratory patterns of bumble bee bombus terrestris foragers. we have shown, in this study, that there is a change in the respiratory patterns of individual b. terrestris foragers after exposing to low temperatures. the bumble bees seemed to become mo ... | 2010 | 19523957 |
| predator crypsis enhances behaviourally mediated indirect effects on plants by altering bumblebee foraging preferences. | predators of pollinators can influence pollination services and plant fitness via both consumptive (reducing pollinator density) and non-consumptive (altering pollinator behaviour) effects. however, a better knowledge of the mechanisms underlying behaviourally mediated indirect effects of predators is necessary to properly understand their role in community dynamics. we used the tripartite relationship between bumblebees, predatory crab spiders and flowers to ask whether behaviourally mediated e ... | 2009 | 19324797 |
| body size-related variation in pigment dispersing factor-immunoreactivity in the brain of the bumblebee bombus terrestris (hymenoptera, apidae). | large bumblebee (bombus terrestris) workers typically visit flowers to collect pollen and nectar during the day and rest in the nest at night. small workers are less likely to forage, but instead stay in the nest and tend brood around the clock. because pigment dispersing factor (pdf) has been identified as a neuromodulator in the circadian network of insects, we used an antiserum that recognizes this peptide to compare patterns of pdf-immunoreactivity (pdf-ir) in the brains of large and small w ... | 2009 | 19232530 |
| validation of a method using queenless bombus terrestris micro-colonies for testing the nutritive value of commercial pollen mixes by comparison with queenright colonies. | the nutritive value of pollen blends purchased by bumble bee producers from beekeepers is a key factor of successful mass rearing. we have already devised a method for quality ranking of pollen diets. it was a 1-mo bioassay using queenless micro-colonies of three callow workers (bombus terrestris l.; apidae: bombinae). in the current study, we tested three pollen diets through the micro-colony method and compared the results to the development of queenright colonies supplied with the same diets. ... | 2008 | 19133450 |
| reproductive competition in the bumble-bee bombus terrestris: do workers advertise sterility? | reproductive competition in social insects is generally mediated through specific fertility pheromones. by analysing dufour's gland secretion in queens and workers of bombus terrestris under varying social conditions, we demonstrate here that the volatile constituents of the secretion exhibit a context-dependent composition. the secretion of egg-laying queens is composed of a series of aliphatic hydrocarbons (alkanes and alkenes), while that of sterile workers contains in addition octyl esters, ... | 2009 | 19129137 |
| no evidence for an evolutionary trade-off between learning and immunity in a social insect. | the immune response affects learning and memory in insects. given this and the known fitness costs of both the immune system and learning, does an evolutionary trade-off exist between these two systems? we tested this by measuring the learning ability of 12 bumble-bee (bombus terrestris) colonies in a free-flying paradigm. we then tested their immune response using the zone of inhibition assay. we found a positive relationship between colony learning performance and immune response, that is, fas ... | 2009 | 18957358 |
| geographic profiling applied to testing models of bumble-bee foraging. | geographic profiling (gp) was originally developed as a statistical tool to help police forces prioritize lists of suspects in investigations of serial crimes. gp uses the location of related crime sites to make inferences about where the offender is most likely to live, and has been extremely successful in criminology. here, we show how gp is applicable to experimental studies of animal foraging, using the bumble-bee bombus terrestris. gp techniques enable us to simplify complex patterns of spa ... | 2009 | 18664426 |