Dead Honey Bees Research Articles

Load-Lifting Capacities of Three Species of Yellowjackets (Vespula) Foraging on Honey-Bee Corpses

1. Other than descriptions of the types of foods taken, little is known of the foraging strategies of social wasps. We examined foraging behaviour of three species of yellowjackets, Vespula germanica, V. squamosa, and V. maculifons, on dead honey-bees (Apis mellifera). 2. Large numbers of yellowjackets were captured from their nests and their lift capacities predicted based on flight muscle mass. 3. Yellowjackets foraging on honey-bees were collected and the masses of their loads measured. 4. Vespula germanca had the highest predicted load-lifting capacity, followed by V. squamosa and V. maculifrons. 5. Vespula germanica carried heavier bee segments than V. squamosa, but both species carried bee parts approaching, but not exceeding, the maximum predicted load. Vespula maculifrons would not forage on dead honey-bees. 6. Lift constraints appeared to limit the mass of prey carried by V. germanica and V squamosa, but handling time and energy cost may play a part in determining the degree to which prey mass is optimized

Multiplication of Clostridium botulinum in dead honey-bees and bee pupae, a likely source of heavy contamination of honey

Multiplication of Clostridium botulinum in honey-bees was examined to explain the heavy contamination of honey which may occur with this pathogen. When dead bees were inoculated with C. botulinum spores at levels of 10 2−10 3 and incubated aerobically for 10 days, the organisms increased to 10 4−10 5. When botulinum spores were inoculated together with Bacillus alvei, the growth of most strains was significantly enhanced (10 5−10 7). Similar results were obtained in bee pupae, but not in bee larvae. The heavy contamination of honey with botulinum spores that we have sometimes encountered may have been caused by contamination from dead bees in which C. botulinum had proliferated.

Residues of cymiazole in honey and honey bees

SUMMARYTen honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica) colonies were treated with the acaricide cymiazole hydrochloride (Apitol) at the dose recommended for controlling Varroa jacobsoni: 2 g Apitol (17.5% a.i.) in 100 ml of 20% sugar syrup sprinkled on to the combs of each colony. Samples of honey and dead honey bees were collected for up to 112 and 15 days respectively after treatment and analysed using a liquid Chromatograph. Cymiazole residues in unsealed honey decreased from an average of 2.45 ppm 1 day after treatment to 0.14 ppm 112 days after treatment: in bees residues were 84.12 ppm after 1 day but decreased quickly and were 0.07 ppm after 15 days. The results suggest that honey bees can rapidly degrade this compound, but that levels higher than the permitted 0.01 ppm (in Italy) can easily occur in honey from treated colonies.

Comparison of Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Mortality as a Result of Diurnal and Nocturnal Applications of Dimethoate

Applications of dimethoate in Arizona are currently being made to citrus orchards at night to reduce the hazard to pollinating honey bees, Apis mellifera L. Over a 9-d period, an application of dimethoate sprayed during the day produced a mean number of 13,414 dead honey bees per colony, but an application sprayed at night produced a mean loss of 6,735 honey bees per colony. Over the same 9-d period, colonies in an unsprayed orchard had a mean loss of only 1,792 honey bees. At one point, pollen collection was reduced by 100% in two sprayed orchards but was unchanged in an orchard that was not sprayed. Colonies in an orchard sprayed during the day lost a mean of 9.2 frames of honey bees, whereas those in an orchard sprayed at night lost a mean of 4.2 frames. Colonies in an unsprayed orchard, however, gained a mean of 3.2 frames of honey bees. Honey bee mortality from applications sprayed at night, although significantly lower than the applications sprayed during the day, is probably still at a level unacceptable to beekeepers.

Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Contaminated with Pesticides and Polychlorinated Biphenyls

Multiple pesticides were simultaneously present in dead honey bees, Apis mellifera L., or in brood comb in 28 of 55 poisoned apiaries in Connecticut in 1983–85. Methyl parathion (Penncap-M), carbaryl, and endosulfan were each detected in 34, 33, and 13 of the apiaries, respectively. Less frequently detected pesticides were methomyl, chlordane, diazinon, captan, and malathion. Health of colonies poisoned with methyl parathion only or methyl parathion in combination with other insecticides was often severely affected (141 of 168 poisoned colonies were either killed or weakened), whereas colonies affected by carbaryl only or carbaryl plus insecticides other than methyl parathion often recovered (16 of 79 poisoned colonies were either killed or weakened). One-half of the poisonings occurred in July. Aroclor 1248 and 1260 (polychlorinated biphenyls) were detected in dead bees, brood comb, honey comb, or honey. Environmental sources of these chlorinated hydrocarbons are unknown. Detectable quantities of polychlorinated biphenyls ≥0.80 ppm were in 4 of 71 honey samples.

The Florida Atala Butterfly, Eumaeus atala florida Rueber (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), in Dade County, Florida

and low temperature narcosis on honey bees, Apis mellifera. Environ. Ent. 9: 144-7. GARY, N. E. 1960. A trap to quantitatively recover dead and abnormal honeybees from the hive. J. Econ. Ent. 53: 782-5. MARDAN, M., AND T. E. RINDERER. 1980. Effects of carbon dioxide and cold anaesthesia on the hoarding behaviour of the honeybee. J. Apicult. Res. 19: 149-53. RIBBANDS, C. R. 1952. Division of labour in the honeybee community. Proc. Roy. Soc. London 140: 32-42. SEKIGUCHI, K., AND S. F. SAKAGAMI. 1966. Structure of foraging population and related problems in the honeybee, with considerations on the division of labor in bee colonies. Hokkaido Natl. Agric. Exp. St. 69: 1-65. WINSTON, M. L., AND S. J. KATZ. 1982. Foraging differences between crossfostered honeybee workers (Apis mellifera) of European and Africanized races. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 10: 125-9.

Improved Trap to Recover Dead and Abnormal Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from Hives

An improved, multifunctional trap is described which enables the efficient collection of dead, diseased, intoxicated, and abnormal bees at the hive entrances of honey bee colonies. Versatile applications include determination of flight activity, pollen collection, drone and queen trapping, compatibility with a magnetic recapture system, and preservation of samples for pesticide residue analysis. Detailed observations on housecleaning behavior are described, and data on trap performance are presented. Approximately 96.9% of bee bodies are recovered by the trap. Examination of hives significantly increased daily mortality. The trap enables accurate monitoring of the effects of pesticides, microorganisms, parasites, and chemical treatments on honey bee colonies.

New mites (Sennertia:Chaetodactylidae) phoretic on honey bees (Apis MelliferaL.) in Guatemala

Abstract Two new phoretic mites, Sennertia shimanukii and S. faini are described from specimens found in a sample of dead honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) from Guatemala. The bees were parasitized by a conopid fly (Physocephala sp.) with the conopid larva present either in the abdomen or in the thorax of the bee. Acarapis dorsalis Morganthaler and Tyrophagus putrescentiae (Schrank) were found also in the bee sample and are reported as new distribution records from Central America. The honey bee is a new host record of the genus Sennertia, a phoretic associate of carpenter bees (Xylocopidae).

Tropilaelaps Clareae: a Parasite of Honeybees in South-East Asia

The first report on Varroa jacobsoni in Bee World was published in 1967 (pages 119–121), and an article by P. Akratanakul and M. Burgett appeared in 1975 entitled ‘Varroa jacobsoni: a prospective pest of honeybees in many parts of the world’. The spread of Varroa into a number of countries occurred from 1977 onwards.As early as 1962 (pages 81–82) A. S. Michael reported on another mite Tropilaelaps clarea, found in collections of dead honeybees from an apiary in the Philippines. Much has been published since, but it still does not seem to be sufficiently realized that this mite could become as serious a pest of honeybees in the world at large as Varroa. Some believe that it could be more serious. This article brings the information up to date.

Evidence for electrostatic enhancement of odor receptor function by worker honeybee antennae.

Pore plates (placoid chemosensillae) on the antennae of dead worker honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) apparently retained a static electric charge that was significantly different from that of the surrounding cuticle. Residual charge resulted in the concentration of airborne particulate matter over the rim of exposed pore plates to the virtual exclusion of such deposition on surrounding cuticle. Postmortem integrity of polar lipids associated with the pore plate and adjacent sense cells is hypothesized as the source of the static potential. Such a lipoidal matrix, if functioning as an electret and if attracting odorous molecules to receptor cells from outside the odor stream of individual receptors, would greatly enhance receptor efficiency of living bees.

Bee-sticks, an Aid in Pollinating Cruciferae1

Abstract Effective, inexpensive, disposable pollination aids (bee-sticks) can be made by gluing the thoraxes of dead honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) to the tips of wooden toothpicks. Bee-sticks also are suitable for the short and long term storage and for shipment of pollen.

Experimental Studies of Mimicry. 6. The Reaction of Toads (Bufo terrestris) to Honeybees (Apis mellifera) and Their Dronefly Mimics (Eristalis vinetorum)

1) Laboratory experiments were conducted to test visual mimicry of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) by the dronefly (Eristalis vinetorum) with 67 caged Southern Toads (Bufo terrestris) as predators. Twenty-two experimental and 22 control toads completed the experiment. 2) Both experimental and control toads began by eating the droneflymimic and a standard palatable insect, the mealworm (Tenebrio molitor), which they readily took throughout the experiment. 3) The experimental toads were then given live honeybees which they at first ate, but after being stung, learned to reject them on sight. When a final mimic was offered, it was eaten by less than half of these toads. 4) On the contrary, nearly all the control toads ate the final mimic. Batesian mimicry of the honeybee by the dronefly was therefore shown to be highly effective. 5) The control toads also freely ate dead honeybees with the stings removed which indicates that the noxious quality that makes the honeybee unpalatable to toads is the sting, perhaps...