Abstract
The residue of imidacloprid in the nectar and pollens of the plants is toxic not only to adult honeybees but also the larvae. Our understanding of the risk of imidacloprid to larvae of the honeybees is still in a very early stage. In this study, the capped-brood, pupation and eclosion rates of the honeybee larvae were recorded after treating them directly in the hive with different dosages of imidacloprid. The brood-capped rates of the larvae decreased significantly when the dosages increased from 24 to 8000 ng/larva. However, there were no significant effects of DMSO or 0.4 ng of imidacloprid per larva on the brood-capped, pupation and eclosion rates. Although the sublethal dosage of imidacloprid had no effect on the eclosion rate, we found that the olfactory associative behavior of the adult bees was impaired if they had been treated with 0.04 ng/larva imidacloprid in the larval stage. These results demonstrate that a sublethal dosage of imidacloprid given to the larvae affects the subsequent associative ability of the adult honeybee workers. Thus, a low dose of imidacloprid may affect the survival condition of the entire colony, even though the larvae survive to adulthood.
Highlights
Honeybees play critical roles in agriculture and the global ecosystem by pollinating plants while at the same time producing bee products with a high economic value [1,2,3]
Recent studies show that RNA-induced acute paralysis virus, chronic paralysis virus, Kashmir bee virus (KBV), deformed wing virus (DWV), Israeli acute paralysis disease (IAPV), and disease caused by Nosema ceranae all contribute to colony collapse disorder (CCD) [8,9,10,11]
The capped-brood rate of the group of 1% DMSO was slightly lower than the rates of the groups of deionized water (DDW) and 0.1% DMSO
Summary
Honeybees play critical roles in agriculture and the global ecosystem by pollinating plants while at the same time producing bee products with a high economic value [1,2,3]. The rather recent phenomenon of colony collapse disorder (CCD) involving the sudden and massive disappearance of bee colonies around the world is worrisome [4]. This phenomenon manifests itself with the en masse disappearance of adult bees with only a few adult bee bodies being found around the beehives. The reason for this tends to be that these bees died while away from the hive, collecting pollen and nectar in the field, and were unable to navigate back home, leading to CCD. This study investigated the effect of imidacloprid on honeybees
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