Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is a heat-formed, acid-catalyzed contaminant of sugar syrups, which find their way into honey bee feeding. As HMF was noted to be toxic to adult honey bees, we investigated the toxicity of HMF towards larvae. Therefore we exposed artificially reared larvae to a chronic HMF intoxication over 6 days using 6 different concentrations (5, 50, 750, 5000, 7500 and 10,000 ppm) and a control. The mortality was assessed from day 2 to day 7 (d7) and on day 22 (d22). Concentrations ranging from 5 to 750 ppm HMF did not show any influence on larval or pupal mortality compared to controls (p > 0.05; Kaplan-Meier analysis). Concentrations of 7500 ppm or higher caused a larval mortality of 100%. An experimental LC50 of 4280 ppm (d7) and 2424 ppm (d22) was determined. The calculated LD50 was 778 µg HMF per larva on d7 and 441 µg HMF on d22. Additionally, we exposed adult honey bees to high concentrations of HMF to compare the mortality to the results from larvae. On d7 larvae are much more sensitive against HMF than adult honey bees after 6 days of feeding. However, on d22 after emergence adults show a lower LC50, which indicates a higher sensitivity than larvae. As toxicity of HMF against honey bees is a function of time and concentration, our results indicate that HMF in supplemental food will probably not cause great brood losses. Yet sublethal effects might decrease fitness of the colony.

Disclosing interactions between pesticides and bee infections is of most interest to understand challenges that pollinators are facing and to which extent bee health is compromised. Here, we address the individual and combined effect that three different pesticides (dimethoate, clothianidin and fluvalinate) and an American foulbrood (AFB) infection have on mortality and the cellular immune response of honeybee larvae. We demonstrate for the first time a synergistic interaction when larvae are exposed to sublethal doses of dimethoate or clothianidin in combination with Paenibacillus larvae, the causative agent of AFB. A significantly higher mortality than the expected sum of the effects of each individual stressor was observed in co-exposed larvae, which was in parallel with a drastic reduction of the total and differential hemocyte counts. Our results underline that characterizing the cellular response of larvae to individual and combined stressors allows unmasking previously undetected sublethal effects of pesticides in colony health.

Immune responses of invertebrates imply more than developing a merely unspecific response to an infection. Great interest has been raised to unveil whether this investment into immunity also involves fitness costs associated to the individual or the group. Focusing on the immune responses of honeybees, we use the well-studied insect bumblebee for comparison. Bumblebees are capable of producing specific immune responses to infections whereas this has not been assessed for honeybees so far. We investigated whether a prior bacterial encounter provides protection against a later exposure to the same or a different bacterium in honeybees. Additionally, we studied whether the foraging activities of honeybees and bumblebees are affected upon immune stimulation by assessing the flight performance. Finally, the acceptance behavior of nestmates toward immune-challenged honeybees was determined. Results show that despite stimulating the immune system of honeybees, no protective effects to infections were found. Further, honeybees were not affected by an immune challenge in their flight performance whereas bumblebees showed significant flight impairment. Immune-challenged honeybees showed lower survival rates than naive individuals when introduced into a regular colony. Here, we reveal different immune response-cost scenarios in honeybees and bumblebees for the first time.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13592-014-0318-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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