Honeybees, poster insects for pollinators

Abstract

ENVIRONMENT Honeybees, poster insects for pollinators ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2017, 95 (46), p 32November 20, 2017Cite this:C&EN 95, 46, 32(Credit: CSIRO)Figure1of2Figure1of2Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are one of nature’s often underappreciated heroes. While they busily go about their business of foraging, collecting pollen, and producing honey, they also serve as unwitting pollinators to help humans produce much of the food we eat. Because bees are often managed by beekeepers and moved around, they would normally make poor sentinel species. But they still qualify as valuable sentinels by virtue of contaminants that show up in the honey they produce.Honeybees and other pollinators such as bumblebees and monarch butterflies are under threats from dangers that include loss of habitat and the use of agricultural insecticides. In particular, neonicotinoids used to kill crop-damaging insects have unintended effects on bee neurological function and are one of the prime suspects for causing recent declines in bee populations. Exposure to neonicotinoids affects honeybee olfactory learning, memory, and navigation, which together impair their foraging efficiency and could lead to problems for people by affecting food availability, quality, and cost.Although emerging studies on the effects of neonicotinoids in vertebrates show some impaired immune functioning, it’s not clear whether the problems bees and other insects have with neonicotinoids are also human health problems. To help monitor bee health scientists have started using microsensing devices fitted to their backs (shown), which identify individual bees and record their movements around hives to analyze their ability to pollinate.Sources:Christopher N. Connolly, University of Dundee; Edward A. D. Mitchell and Alexandre Aebi, University of Neuchâtel; Paulo de Souza, Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation Did you know? Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for humans.“The decline in bee abundances is particularly alarming given their role in pollination—bee losses are a major threat to human food security and ecosystem stability.”—Christopher N. Connolly, University of Dundee Data bite A recent study of nearly 200 honey samples from around the world found traces of at least one of the five main neonicotinoids in 75% of the samples and two or more neonicotinoids in 45% of the samples. The measured concentrations fell below the residue levels typically permitted for human consumption in the European Union, but about one-third of the samples had high enough concentrations to harm bees (Science 2017, DOI: 10.1126/science.aan3684).