Negative effects of neonicotinoids on male honeybee survival, behaviour and physiology in the field

Straub, Lars; Villamar‐Bouza, Laura; Bruckner, Selina; Chantawannakul, Panuwan; Kolari, Eleonora; Maitip, Jakkrawut; Vidondo, Beatriz; Neumann, Peter; Williams, Geoffrey R.

doi:10.1111/1365-2664.14000

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 146 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A similar observation was also detected in a different study where the foraging and homing success of bumble bees were impacted by exposure to 0.0024 mg/kg of thiamathoxam [127]. In another study, Straub, Villamar-Bouza [128] confirmed that the survival of honeybees was reduced by 51% as well as reduced flight activities when exposed to 0.0043 mg/kg and .0011 mg/kg concentrations of thiamethoxam and clothianidin respectively. Therefore, there may be potential sub-lethal effects of the detected pesticide residues in honey on bees which deserves further consideration.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Honey contamination from plant protection products approved for cocoa cultivation: a systematic review of existing research and methods

Boakye

Stanley

White

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cocoa (Theobroma cocoa), which is the key ingredient of chocolate, is an important economic crop plant which supports the livelihoods of an estimated forty to fifty million people directly involved in its cultivation. Many cocoa producing countries, especially those from the developing world, rely on the income from cocoa export to support their economies. The plant is, however, prone to disease and pest attacks and therefore requires the application of large volumes of pesticides to guarantee satisfactory productions. Even though pesticides help protect the cocoa plant from disease and pest attacks, unintended effects of environmental contamination are also a possibility. Honey, a product of nectar collected by honeybees from flowers during foraging, may be a useful proxy for the extent to which landscapes are exposed to pesticides and the degree of pesticide accumulation in the environment. The overreaching question is: to what extent has the effect of pesticides imputed for cocoa production on honey received attention in research? In this present study, we conducted a systematic approach to quantify existing studies on honey contamination from plant protection products approved for cocoa cultivation. We observed that one hundred and fifty-five different compounds, comprising some recommended and other unapproved compounds for cocoa cultivation, were detected in 79% of the reviewed ninety publications. Our results further point to the neonicotinoids as the most studied class of pesticides, with imidacloprid particularly being the single most studied and detected compound. However, the most remarkable observation made from this study points to disproportionate studies of honey contamination from pesticides conducted in cocoa and non-cocoa producing countries with only 18% of the publications taking place in the latter. To bridge the gap, we suggest prioritising increased research in cocoa growing countries to ameliorate the significant gaps in knowledge owing to limited studies emanating from these geographic regions.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Honey contamination from plant protection products approved for cocoa cultivation: a systematic review of existing research and methods

Boakye

Stanley

White

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Beyond morphological abnormalities, exposure to chemical pollutants often causes physiological, neurological, and hormonal disruption, leading to changes in phenotypic expression [24][25][26]. For instance, pollutants can alter an individual's metabolic state, leading to increased foraging and activity [27].…”

Section: How Do Chemical Pollutants Impact Individuals?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A classic system for studying collective foraging is the honey bee, Apis melifera (Figure I). Because honey bees pollinate a wide range of crops, the use of chemicals, particularly insecticides, in agriculture has had a large impact on the health, behaviour, and survival of honey bees [26,104]. Exposure to insecticides can alter bee brain morphology and disrupt cognitive abilities [105], including learning [106], which can compromise the ability of bees to recognise colony members and food cues [107].…”

Section: Collective Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting the impacts of chemical pollutants on animal groups

Michelangeli

Martin

Pinter‐Wollman

et al. 2022

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Both neonicotinoids and V. destructor have each been shown to negatively affect drone health and performance (Rangel and Fisher, 2019;Friedli et al, 2020;Straub et al, 2021). On its own, V. destructor parasitism reduced drone emergence body mass by 6% compared to controls during our experiment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…For each individual, all structures were placed in a 1.5 ml polypropylene tube (Eppendorf, Enfield, CT, United States) containing 500 µl Kiev + buffer and crushed to make a diluted sperm stock solution (SSS) (Carreck et al, 2013). Subsequently, sperm viability and concentration were assessed following Straub et al (2016Straub et al ( , 2021. For sperm viability, a 50 µl aliquot of the SSS was added to a 1.5 ml polypropylene tube containing 50 µl Kiev + buffer (Company, City, State, United States).…”

Section: Drone Survival and Sperm Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergistic and Antagonistic Interactions Between Varroa destructor Mites and Neonicotinoid Insecticides in Male Apis mellifera Honey Bees

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pressures from multiple, sometimes interacting, stressors can have negative consequences to important ecosystem-service providing species like the western honey bee (Apis mellifera). The introduced parasite Varroa destructor and the neonicotinoid class of insecticides each represent important, nearly ubiquitous biotic and abiotic stressors to honey bees, respectively. Previous research demonstrated that they can synergistically interact to negatively affect non-reproductive honey bee female workers, but no data exist on how concurrent exposure may affect reproductive honey bee males (drones). This is important, given that the health of reproductive females (queens), possibly because of poor mating, is frequently cited as a major driver of honey bee colony loss. To address this, known age cohorts of drones were obtained from 12 honey bee colonies—seven were exposed to field-relevant concentrations of two neonicotinoids (4.5 ppb thiamethoxam and 1.5 ppb clothianidin) during development via supplementary pollen patties; five colonies received patties not spiked with neonicotinoids. Artificially emerged drones were assessed for natural V. destructor infestation, weighed, and then allocated to the following treatment groups: 1. Control, 2. V. destructor only, 3. Neonicotinoid only, and 4. Combined (both mites and neonicotinoid). Adult drones were maintained in laboratory cages alongside attendant workers (1 drone: 2 worker ratio) until they have reached sexual maturity after 14 days so sperm concentration and viability could be assessed. The data suggest that V. destructor and neonicotinoids interacted synergistically to negatively affect adult drone survival, but that they interacted antagonistically on emergence mass. Although sample sizes were too low to assess the effects of V. destructor and combined exposure on sperm quality, we observed no influence of neonicotinoids on sperm concentration or viability. Our findings highlight the diverse effects of concurrent exposure to stressors on honey bees, and suggest that V. destructor and neonicotinoids can severely affect the number of sexually mature adult drones available for mating.

show abstract

Negative effects of neonicotinoids on male honeybee survival, behaviour and physiology in the field

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 23 publications

References 146 publications

Honey contamination from plant protection products approved for cocoa cultivation: a systematic review of existing research and methods

Honey contamination from plant protection products approved for cocoa cultivation: a systematic review of existing research and methods

Predicting the impacts of chemical pollutants on animal groups

Synergistic and Antagonistic Interactions Between Varroa destructor Mites and Neonicotinoid Insecticides in Male Apis mellifera Honey Bees

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About