The makeup of microbial species—the microbiome—in a honey bee queen's gut changes slowly as she ages, while a worker bee's microbiome changes much more rapidly, according to a new study published by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists.
Learning the details of the honey bee gut microbiome is offering potential for a whole new set of tools for managing honey bee colonies, explained ARS microbial ecologist Kirk E. Anderson at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, Arizona.
A team of Harvard University researchers spent months shaking and rattling swarms of thousands of honey bees to better understand how bees collectively collaborate to stabilize structures in the presence of external loads.
The research is published in Nature Physics.
Social communication in bee colonies: Bees learn to evaluate the importance of information shared by waggle dances
JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAINZ
From pesticides to land development to electromagnetic pollution, humans often harm the ability of honeybees to reproduce. Article by Elizabeth Anne Brown on the National Geographic
The successful demonstration of remote-controlled “drones-bees” by Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) has been making news recently. But the buzz surrounding the drone’s applications could be much hyped, according to at least two independent estimates by biologists, reports Vishwam Sankaran for Science journal.
Interesting article from Matthew Appleby about research sponsored by a leading pesticide manufacturer.
Two specific enzymes, one in the honeybee and one in the bumblebee, may help find a new generation of insecticides that protect crops without threatening the pollinators.