Sucrose Sensitivity of Honey Bees Is Differently Affected by Dietary Protein and a Neonicotinoid Pesticide

Démares, Fabien; Crous, Kendall L.; Pirk, Christian Walter Werner; Nicolson, Susan W.; Human, Hannelie

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0156584

Cited by 42 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Our findings of an impact on learning performance from direct adult neonicotinoid exposure conforms with previous studies showing negative effects on learning in honeybees [68][69][70] and bumblebees [62]. However, our study design allowed us to compare responses between young and older adults receiving different chronic exposure histories.…”

Section: (A) Pesticide Exposure During Early Development Affected Ressupporting

confidence: 87%

Insecticide exposure during brood or early-adult development reduces brain growth and impairs adult learning in bumblebees

et al. 2020

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For social bees, an understudied step in evaluating pesticide risk is how contaminated food entering colonies affects residing offspring development and maturation. For instance, neurotoxic insecticide compounds in food could affect central nervous system development predisposing individuals to become poorer task performers later-in-life. Studying bumblebee colonies provisioned with neonicotinoid spiked nectar substitute, we measured brain volume and learning behaviour of 3 or 12-day old adults that had experienced in-hive exposure during brood and/or early-stage adult development. Micro-computed tomography scanning and segmentation of multiple brain neuropils showed exposure during either of the developmental stages caused reduced mushroom body calycal growth relative to unexposed workers. Associated with this was a lower probability of responding to a sucrose reward and lower learning performance in an olfactory conditioning test. While calycal volume of control workers positively correlated with learning score, this relationship was absent for exposed workers indicating neuropil functional impairment. Comparison of 3-and 12-day adults exposed during brood development showed a similar degree of reduced calycal volume and impaired behaviour highlighting lasting and irrecoverable effects from exposure despite no adult exposure. Our findings help explain how the onset of pesticide exposure to whole colonies can lead to lag-effects on growth and resultant dysfunction.

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Section: (A) Pesticide Exposure During Early Development Affected Ressupporting

confidence: 87%

Insecticide exposure during brood or early-adult development reduces brain growth and impairs adult learning in bumblebees

et al. 2020

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“…Lundin et al after analyzing 268 publications involving neonicotinoid researches, found that thiamethoxam was the second most studied component with 34%, in 73 studies. Recently, articles evaluating the exhibition of the thiamethoxam on pollinators have been pointed out as sublethal effects on behavior, locomotion, and memory, metabolism and immunity, reproduction, and synergistic effects of additional pesticides with neonicotinoids …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxicity and effects of the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam on Scaptotrigona bipunctata lepeletier, 1836 (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Moreira

Gigliolli

Falco

et al. 2018

Environmental Toxicology

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The neonicotinoid thiamethoxam is widely used in different agricultural crops, and it has a spectrum of action against insects, affecting both pests and pollinators, such as bees. In this study, the effects of exposure to sublethal concentrations of thiamethoxam on stingless bees Scaptotrigona bipunctata were evaluated. Foragers bees were exposed to the insecticide and subjected to genetic biochemical, histochemical, and morphological analyses after 24, 48, and 72 h of ingestion. Analysis of isoenzyme esterases revealed significant alterations in the relative activity of EST-4, a type II cholinesterase. Evaluation of the S. bipunctata brain revealed changes in the state of chromatin condensation according to the exposure time and concentration of neonicotinoid compared with the control. Morphological changes were observed in the midgut of this species at all concentrations and exposure times, which may interfere with various physiological processes of these insects. We can conclude that, although thiamethoxam at the concentrations evaluated did not cause high mortality, it induced concentration-dependent changes in bees by activating enzymes related with the protection for xenobiotic, internal morphology and probably these changes may lead to alterations in the activity of bees.

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“…Importantly, the P:C ratios achieved on our pollen treatments are broadly comparable to those in other studies on both honey bees and bumble bees provided with casein-based diets. For honey bees, these include P:C ratios ranging from 1:6.5 (Archer et al, 2014b;Démares et al, 2016) to 1:150 (Paoli et al, 2014). Although the study of Vaudo et al (2016) was focused on protein-to-lipid ratios, their data on consumption show P:C ratios of 1:69 and 1:85 in two bumblebee species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digestibility and nutritional value of fresh and stored pollen for honey bees (Apis mellifera scutellata)

Nicolson

Neves

Human

et al. 2018

Journal of Insect Physiology

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Pollen, the main protein source for honey bees, is mixed with regurgitated nectar or honey during collection and then stored as 'bee bread' before its consumption, mainly by young nurse workers. It has been suggested that storage of pollen improves its nutritional value and digestibility, but there is little evidence for such changes. We fed two fresh pollen types of different protein content (aloe and sunflower), and two stored pollen types (sunflower and a mixed pollen), to young caged worker bees. We measured daily consumption of pollen and sucrose solution, and survival after 14 days. At day 14 we recorded ovarian activation and extraction efficiency, by counting empty pollen grains in the rectal contents. Extraction efficiency is a measure of pollen digestibility. Contrary to our predictions, bees did not consume more fresh sunflower pollen than fresh aloe pollen to compensate for the lower protein content of sunflower pollen. In addition, they did not consume less sucrose solution when fed stored pollen diets that are already enriched in sugar. Consumption of stored sunflower pollen resulted in a low protein to carbohydrate (P:C) intake. Survival and ovarian activation were higher on diets giving higher P:C intakes. Extraction efficiency was high (up to 99%) for all pollen diets, and comparison of fresh and stored sunflower pollen showed that storage did not make it easier to digest. Changes to pollen during storage do not confer obvious benefits to honey bees.

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Sucrose Sensitivity of Honey Bees Is Differently Affected by Dietary Protein and a Neonicotinoid Pesticide

Cited by 42 publications

References 71 publications

Insecticide exposure during brood or early-adult development reduces brain growth and impairs adult learning in bumblebees

Insecticide exposure during brood or early-adult development reduces brain growth and impairs adult learning in bumblebees

Toxicity and effects of the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam on Scaptotrigona bipunctata lepeletier, 1836 (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Digestibility and nutritional value of fresh and stored pollen for honey bees (Apis mellifera scutellata)

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