| varroa destructor macula-like virus, lake sinai virus and other new rna viruses in wild bumblebee hosts (bombus pascuorum, bombus lapidarius and bombus pratorum). | pollinators such as bumblebees (bombus spp.) are in decline worldwide which poses a threat not only for ecosystem biodiversity but also to human crop production services. one main cause of pollinator decline may be the infection and transmission of diseases including rna viruses. recently, new viruses have been discovered in honeybees, but information on the presence of these in wild bumblebees is largely not available. in this study, we investigated the prevalence of new rna viruses in bombus s ... | 2016 | 26706994 |
| whole-genome sequence analysis of bombella intestini lmg 28161t, a novel acetic acid bacterium isolated from the crop of a red-tailed bumble bee, bombus lapidarius. | the whole-genome sequence of bombella intestini lmg 28161t, an endosymbiotic acetic acid bacterium (aab) occurring in bumble bees, was determined to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying its metabolic capabilities. the draft genome sequence of b. intestini lmg 28161t was 2.02 mb. metabolic carbohydrate pathways were in agreement with the metabolite analyses of fermentation experiments and revealed its oxidative capacity towards sucrose, d-glucose, d-fructose and d-mannitol, but not eth ... | 2016 | 27851750 |
| bumblebees experience landscapes at different spatial scales: possible implications for coexistence. | coexistence in bumblebee communities has largely been investigated at local spatial scales. however, local resource partitioning does not fully explain the species diversity of bumblebee communities. theoretical studies provide new evidence that partitioning of space can promote species coexistence, when species interact with their environment at different spatial scales. if bumblebee species possess specific foraging ranges, different spatial resource utilisation patterns might operate as an ad ... | 2006 | 16758219 |
| gene flow inferred from seed dispersal and pollinator behaviour compared to dna analysis of restriction site variation in a patchy population of lotus corniculatus l. | gene flow was investigated in a natural population of lotus corniculatus l. (fabaceae) using a combination of pollen and seed dispersal studies and a recombinant dna technique. the population is spatially heterogeneous and grows with empetrum nigrum. l. corniculatus is pollinated by the pollen-collecting bumblebee bombus lapidarius l. most pollinator flights occurred within patches, as bees usually visit nearest-neighbour plants, show no marked directionality, and forage mostly within patches. g ... | 1992 | 28312883 |
| scent of a break-up: phylogeography and reproductive trait divergences in the red-tailed bumblebee (bombus lapidarius). | the pleistocene climatic oscillations are considered as a major driving force of intraspecific divergence and speciation. during ice ages, populations isolated in allopatric glacial refugia can experience differentiation in reproductive traits through divergence in selection regimes. this phenomenon may lead to reproductive isolation and dramatically accentuates the consequences of the climatic oscillations on species. alternatively, when reproductive isolation is incomplete and populations are ... | 2013 | 24295171 |
| 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 |
| insect visitors and potential pollinators of orchis militaris (orchidaceae) in southern belgium. | as part of a research project on the food deception strategy in orchis militaris (l.), the objective of this study was to identify insect visitors and potential pollinators of this orchid species in belgium. in 2013, insects were collected over 2 d per site in five localities distributed in southern belgium (wallonia). a total of 104 insects belonging to 49 species were caught. dipterans were the most abundant visitors (50% of total specimens), followed by hymenopterans (32%). rhingia campestris ... | 2016 | 27694346 |
| the role of desaturases in the biosynthesis of marking pheromones in bumblebee males. | bumblebee males (hymenoptera) produce species-specific labial gland secretions called marking pheromones (mps). mps generally consist of terpenoids and fatty-acid-derived aliphatic compounds with various chain lengths predominantly containing one or no double bonds. the unsaturated fatty-acid-derived mp components were hypothesized to be produced by fatty acid desaturases (fads) that exhibit diverse substrate specificities. to address this hypothesis, we isolated and functionally characterized f ... | 2013 | 23727612 |
| bifidobacterium commune sp. nov. isolated from the bumble bee gut. | bifidobacteria were isolated from the gut of bombus lapidarius, bombus terrestris and bombus hypnorum bumble bees by direct isolation on modified trypticase phytone yeast extract agar. the maldi-tof ms profiles of four isolates (lmg 28292(t), r-53560, r-53124, lmg 28626) were found to be identical and did not cluster with the profiles of established bifidobacterium species. analysis of the 16s rrna gene sequence of strain lmg 28292(t) revealed that lmg 28292(t) is most closely related to the bif ... | 2015 | 25753540 |
| bifidobacteria in the digestive tract of bumblebees. | bifidobacteria and other bacterial groups (lactobacilli, facultative anaerobes, anaerobes) from the digestive tract of three bumblebee species (bombus lucorum (34 samples), bombus pascuorum (18 samples) and bombus lapidarius (9 samples)) were enumerated and characterised. counts of facultative anaerobic bacteria and lactobacilli (5.41+/-2.92 and 2.69+/-3.02 log cfu/g of digestive tract content) were lower than those of anaerobes (7.66+/-0.86 log cfu/g). counts of bifidobacteria were determined u ... | 2010 | 19651224 |
| bifidobacterium bombi sp. nov., from the bumblebee digestive tract. | gram-positive-staining, anaerobic, non-spore-forming, lactate- and acetate-producing bacterial strains were isolated from the digestive tracts of different bumblebee species (bombus lucorum, bombus pascuorum and bombus lapidarius). all of the isolates produced fructose-6-phosphate phosphoketolase activity. a representative strain, bluci/tpt, was characterized further. cells of strain bluci/tpt showed occasional bifurcation and irregular constrictions. the bacterium utilized a wide range of carbo ... | 2009 | 19567560 |
| cytological variation and pathogenicity of the bumble bee parasite nosema bombi (microspora, nosematidae). | in three field seasons, 2003-2005, bumble bees were collected in southern sweden and eastern denmark in search of microsporidian parasites. of the 16 bumble bee species studied, microsporidia were found in bombus hortorum, bombus hypnorum, bombus lapidarius, bombus lucorum, bombus pascuorum, bombus pratorum, bombus ruderarius, bombus subterraneus and bombus terrestris. only one microsporidian species, nosema bombi, was recorded. a microsporidium found in b. pratorum differed cytologically from m ... | 2007 | 17005191 |
| mass spectrometry strategies for venom mapping and peptide sequencing from crude venoms: case applications with single arthropod specimen. | due to their complexity and diversity, animal venoms represent an extensive source of bioactive compounds such as peptides and proteins. conventional approaches for their characterization often require large quantities of biological material. current mass spectrometry (ms) techniques now give access to a wealth of information in a short working time frame with minute amounts of sample. such ms approaches may now be used for the discovery of novel compounds, and once their structure has been dete ... | 2006 | 16626777 |
| an interspecific comparison of foraging range and nest density of four bumblebee (bombus) species. | bumblebees are major pollinators of crops and wildflowers in northern temperate regions. knowledge of their ecology is vital for the design of effective management and conservation strategies but key aspects remain poorly understood. here we employed microsatellite markers to estimate and compare foraging range and nest density among four uk species: bombus terrestris, bombus pascuorum, bombus lapidarius, and bombus pratorum. workers were sampled along a 1.5-km linear transect across arable farm ... | 2005 | 15836652 |
| correlation of sound generation and metabolic heat flux in the bumblebee bombus lapidarius | flying insects produce extreme amounts of heat as a by-product during the contractions of their thoracic flight muscles (heinrich, 1989). before flight, metabolic heat may serve to warm up the thoracic muscles until the minimum lift-off temperature is reached (heinrich, 1974b; stone and willmer, 1989; esch and goller, 1991). social bees and wasps are also able to use the heat produced in their flight muscles for brood incubation and for active regulation of nest temperatures (heinrich, 1974a; se ... | 1994 | 9317879 |
| apibacter mensalis sp. nov.: a rare member of the bumblebee gut microbiota. | isolates lmg 28357t (=r-53146t) and lmg 28623 were obtained from gut samples of bombus lapidarius bumblebees caught in ghent, belgium. they had identical 16s rrna gene sequences which were 95.7 % identical to that of apibacter adventoris wkb301t, a member of the family flavobacteriaceae. both isolates had highly similar matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (maldi-tof) ms and randomly amplified polymorphic dna (rapd) profiles. a draft genome sequence was obtained for strain ... | 2016 | 26813786 |