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300 results for “Bumble bees”
Data from: Flowering plant composition shapes pathogen infection intensity and reproduction in bumble bee colonies
<p><span>Pathogens pose significant threats to pollinator health and food security. Pollinators can transmit diseases during foraging, but the consequences of plant species composition for infection is unknown. In agroecosystems, flowering strips or hedgerows are often used to augment pollinator habitat. We used canola as a focal crop in tents, and manipulated flowering strip composition using plant species we had previously shown to result in higher or lower bee infection in short-term trials. We also manipulated initial colony infection to assess impacts on foraging behavior. Flowering strips using high-infection plant species nearly doubled bumble bee colony infection intensity compared to low-infection plant species, with intermediate infection in canola-only tents. Both infection treatment and flowering strips reduced visits to canola, but we saw no evidence that infection treatment shifted foraging preferences. Although high-infection flowering strips increased colony infection intensity, colony reproduction was improved with any flowering strips compared to canola alone. Effects of flowering strips on colony reproduction were explained by nectar availability, but effects of flowering strips on infection intensity were not. Thus, flowering strips benefited colony reproduction by adding floral resources, but certain plant species also come with a risk of increased pathogen infection intensity.</span></p>
Data for: Possible synergistic effects of thymol and nicotine against Crithidia bombi parasitism in bumble bees
<p>Data and R scripts for analysis of nicotine-thymol synergy experiment and thymol dose experiment evaluating effects of nectar secondary metabolite treatments on <em>Crithidia bombi </em>parasite load and mortality in the bumble bee <em>Bombus impatiens.</em></p>
FIGURE 1 in Preliminary Study of the Bumble Bee Bombus griseocollis, Its Eggs, Their Eclosion, and Its Larval Instars and Pupae (Apoidea: Apidae: Bombini)
FIGURE 1. Microphotograph of egg of Bombus griseocollis, anterior end at right.
Data from: Range-wide genetic analysis of an endangered bumble bee (Bombus affinis) reveals population structure, isolation by distance, and low colony abundance
<p>Declines in bumblebee species ranges and abundances are documented across multiple continents and have prompted the need for research to aid species recovery and conservation. The rusty patched bumblebee (<em>Bombus affinis</em>) is the first federally-listed bumblebee species in North America. We conducted a range-wide population genetics study of <em>B. affinis</em> from across all extant conservation units to inform conservation efforts. To understand the species' vulnerability and help establish recovery targets, we examined population structure, patterns of genetic diversity, and population differentiation. Additionally, we conducted site-level analysis of colony abundance to inform prioritizing areas for conservation, translocation, and other recovery actions. We find substantial evidence of population structuring along an east-to-west gradient. Putative populations show evidence of isolation by distance, high inbreeding coefficients, and a range wide male diploidy rate of ~15%. Our results suggest the Appalachians represents a genetically distinct cluster with high levels of private alleles and substantial differentiation from the rest of the extant range. Site-level analyses suggest low colony abundance estimates for <em>B. affinis</em> compared to similar datasets of stable, co-occurring species. These results lend genetic support to trends from observational studies suggesting B. affinis has undergone a recent decline and exhibits substantial spatial structure. The low colony abundances observed here suggest caution in overinterpreting the stability of populations even where <em>B. affinis</em> is reliably detected interannually. These results help delineate informed management units, provide context for the potential risks of translocation programs, and can help set clear recovery targets for this and other threatened bumblebee species.</p>
Data from: Landscape heterogeneity drives population structure in four western bumble bee species
<p>Bumble bees are critical pollinators in wild, agricultural, and urban ecosystems—providing the necessary ecological services for food and crop production. In western North America, mountain ranges have high bumble bee species richness. However, as climate change increases temperatures and restricts montane populations to higher elevational spaces, their ability to disperse and maintain genetic diversity decreases. This genetic isolation could lead to the extirpation of local pollinator communities and an overall loss of pollinators. We analyzed the genetic diversity of four broadly sympatric species of bumble bees across the Rocky and Cascade Mountains of western North America to assess habitat isolation's impact on population genetic structure. We expected species restricted to higher elevation habitats to display higher population structure and less genetic diversity across the landscape. We sampled approximately 150 bees per species from seven to eight sites across each species' range. We genotyped bees with an average of 10 loci and used FST and Bayesian Structure analysis to quantify population differentiation. Using isolation by distance and isolation by resistance analyses, species with both narrow and broad habitat suitability requirements showed evidence of habitat suitability restricting gene flow. Although each species showed varying degrees of genetic structure and gene flow, knowing how habitat heterogeneity drives genetic structure and isolation can help guide conservation efforts and determine focal regions for bumble bee conservation in the face of climate change.</p>
Co-formulant in a commercial fungicide product causes lethal and sub-lethal effects in bumble bees
<p>The dataset and code behind an experimental paper in Scientific Reports. </p> <p>Paper DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00919-x</p> <p>Pollinators, particularly wild bees, are suffering declines across the globe, and pesticides are thought to be drivers of these declines. Research into, and regulation of pesticides has focused on the active ingredients, and their impact on bee health. In contrast, the additional components in pesticide formulations have been overlooked as potential threats. By testing an acute oral dose of the fungicide product Amistar, and equivalent doses of each individual co-formulant, we were able to measure the toxicity of the formulation and identify the ingredient responsible. We found that a co-formulant, alcohol ethoxylates, caused a range of damage to bumble bee health. Exposure to alcohol ethoxylates caused 30% mortality and a range of sublethal effects. Alcohol ethoxylates treated bees consumed half as much sucrose as negative control bees over the course of the experiment and lost weight. Alcohol ethoxylates treated bees had significant melanisation of their midguts, evidence of gut damage. We suggest that this gut damage explains the reduction in appetite, weight loss and mortality, with bees dying from energy depletion. Our results demonstrate that sublethal impacts of pesticide formulations need to be considered during regulatory consideration, and that co-formulants can be more toxic than active ingredients.</p>
Effects of an alternative host on the prevalence and infection intensity of a bumble bee parasite
<p>Several bee parasites are transmitted through flowers, and some of them can infect multiple host species. Given the shared use of flowers by bee species, parasites can potentially encounter multiple host species, which could affect the evolution of parasite virulence. We used the trypanosomatid parasite <em>Crithidia bombi</em> and its host, the common eastern bumble bee (<em>Bombus impatiens</em>), to explore the effect of infecting an alternative host, the alfalfa leaf-cutter bee (<em>Megachile rotundata</em>), on parasite infectivity and ability to replicate. We conducted a serial passage experiment on primary and alternative hosts, assessing infectivity and intensity of infection during five passes. Parasite cells from each pass through the alternative host were also used to infect a group of primary hosts. We found that serial passes through the alternative host increased infectivity, but there was no effect on intensity of infection. Interestingly, both the probability and intensity of infection on the primary host increased after serial passage through the alternative host. This increase in intensity of infection could be due to maladaptation after selection of new <em>C. bombi</em> strains has occurred in the alternative host. This study suggests that host switching has the potential to affect the adaptation of bee parasites to their hosts.</p>
Climate driven disruption of transitional alpine bumble bee communities
<p>Pollinators at high elevations face multiple threats from climate change including heat stress, failure to phenological match advancing flower resources and competitive pressure from range-expanding species of lower elevations. We conducted long-term multi-site surveys of alpine bumble bees to determine how phenology of range-stable and range-expanding species is responding to climate change. We ask whether bumble bee responses generate mismatches with floral resources, and whether these mismatches in turn promote community disruption and potential species replacement.</p> <p>In alpine environments of the central Rocky Mountains, range-stable and range-expanding bumble bees exhibit phenological mismatches with flowering host plants due to earlier flowering of preferred resources under warmer spring temperatures. However, workers of range-stable species are more canalised in their foraging schedules, exploiting a relatively narrow portion of the flowering season. Specifically, range-stable species show less variance in phenology in response to temporally and spatially changing conditions than range-expanding ones. Because flowering duration drives the seasonal abundance of floral resources at the landscape scale, we hypothesize that canalisation of phenology in alpine bumble bees could reduce their access to earlier or later season flowers.</p> <p>Warmer conditions are decreasing abundances of range-stable alpine bumble bees above the timberline, increasing abundance of range-expanding species, and facilitating a novel and more species-diverse bumble bee community. However, this trend is not explained by greater phenological mismatch of range-stable bees. Results suggest that conversion of historic habitats for cold-adapted alpine bumble bee species into refugia for more heat-tolerant congeners is disrupting bumble bee communities at high elevations, though the precise mechanisms accounting for these changes are not yet known. If warming continues, we predict that the transient increase in diversity due to colonization by historically low-elevation species will likely give way to declines of alpine bumble bees in the central Rocky Mountains.</p>
Bumble bee demographic data for functional linear models
<p>1. Behavior and organization of social groups is thought to be vital to the functioning of societies, yet the contributions of various roles within social groups towards population growth and dynamics have been difficult to quantify. A common approach to quantifying these role-based contributions is evaluating the number of individuals conducting certain roles, which ignores how behavior might scale up to effects at the population-level. Manipulative experiments are another common approach to determine population-level effects, but they often ignore potential feedbacks associated with these various roles.<br> 2. Here, we evaluate the effects of worker size distribution in bumblebee colonies on worker production in 24 observational colonies across three environments, using functional linear models. Functional linear models are an underused correlative technique that has been used to assess lag effects of environmental drivers on plant performance. We demonstrate potential applications of this technique for exploring high-dimensional ecological systems, such as the contributions of individuals with different traits to colony dynamics.<br> 3. We found that more larger workers had mostly positive effects and more smaller workers had negative effects on worker production. Most of these effects were only detected under low or fluctuating resource environments suggesting that the advantage of colonies with larger-bodied workers becomes more apparent under stressful conditions.<br> 4. We also demonstrate the wider ecological application of functional linear models. We highlight the advantages and limitations when considering these models, and how they are a valuable complement to many of these performance-based and manipulative experiments.</p>
Consumption of pollen contaminated with field-realistic concentrations of fungicide cause sub-lethal effects in common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens [Hymenoptera]: [Apidae]) microcolonies
<p>Bumble bees are declining across the globe. Causes of this decline have been attributed to a variety of stressors, including pesticides. Fungicides are a type of pesticide that have been understudied in the context of bumble bee health. As a result, fungicides are often applied to flowering plants without consideration of pollinator exposure. Recent work demonstrates that fungicides have sublethal effects in bumble bees, but little is known about how much fungicide it takes to cause these sublethal effects. To address this gap in the literature, we fed microcolonies of the common eastern bumble bee (<em>Bombus impatiens</em>) pollen contaminated with a range of fungicide concentrations. We chose these concentrations based on the range of fungicide concentrations in pollen and nectar that were reported in the literature. Results revealed that later-stage pupae and newly emerged males are potentially sensitive to fungicide exposure, showing smaller size and reduced fat reserves at intermediate levels of contamination. Compared to the control, intermediated levels of fungicide-contaminated pollen led to increased pupal mortality and delayed male emergence. Contrary to expectations, higher fungicide levels did not exhibit a linear relationship with negative impacts, suggesting nuanced effects. Because body size and emergence timing are important aspects of bumble bee reproductive behavior, results have implications for mating success, potentially disrupting colony development.</p>
Data for "A neural correlate of learning fails to predict foraging efficiency in the bumble bee Bombus terrestris"
<p>This file contain the foraging and synaptic density data collected in the summer of 2019 by Pasquier, Pull, Ott and Leadbeater. Used in the paper titled "A neural correlate of learning fails to predict foraging efficiency in the bumble bee <em>Bombus terrestris</em>".</p>
Data from: Integrating vital rates explains optimal worker size for resource return by bumble bee workers
1. Size-number trade-offs in reproduction are commonly observed in nature. Bumble bee (Bombus spp.) colonies produce workers that vary considerably in size. This variation suggests that colonies face potential size-number trade-offs when producing workers. 2. Here, we estimated size-based vital rates of Bombus vosnesenskii workers using colonies reared from wild caught queens. We conducted a mark-recapture study to estimate worker survival as a function of body size. We also collected data on pollen and nectar loads as well as foraging trips using a radio-frequency identification system to estimate daily resource return as a function of body size. We integrated survival and daily resource return to estimate lifetime resource collection and offset these estimates by the size-based worker production costs. 3. We found size-based trade-offs among workers of different sizes. Smaller workers had higher survival, but larger workers returned with more resources per day. The largest workers made slightly fewer foraging trips per day. 4. Overall, larger workers made the greatest lifetime contribution to both nectar and pollen collection. However, once the benefits of larger workers are offset by their higher production costs, intermediate-sized workers were the optimal for net resource contribution according to our models. Many previous studies have found that larger workers outperformed smaller workers with foraging and in-nest tasks, yet these studies have not integrated multiple fitness components or worker production costs to quantify net resource contribution towards colony growth. 5. Accounting for tradeoffs between costs and performance changed our conclusions about optimal body size from being large to being near the observed average. Similar approaches of integrating multiple vital rates may resolve apparently suboptimal life histories in other taxa.
An organizing feature of bumble bee life history: worker emergence promotes queen reproduction and survival in young nests
<p>Bumble bee queens initiate nests solitarily and transition to living socially once they successfully rear their first cohort of offspring. Bumble bees are disproportionately important for early season pollination, and many populations are experiencing dramatic declines. In this system, the onset of the social stage is critical for nest survival, yet the mechanisms that facilitate this transition remain understudied. Further, the majority of conservation efforts targets the social stage of the bumble bee life cycle and do not address the solitary founding stage. We experimentally manipulated the timing of worker emergence in young nests of bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) queens to determine whether and how queen fecundity and survival are impacted by the emergence of workers in the nest. We found that queens with workers added to the nest exhibit increased ovary activation, accelerated egg laying, elevated juvenile hormone (JH) titres and also lower mortality relative to solitary queens. We also show that JH is more strongly impacted by the social environment than associated with queen reproductive state, suggesting that this key regulator of insect reproduction has expanded its function in bumble bees to also influence social organization. We further demonstrate that these effects are independent of queen social history, suggesting that this underlying mechanism promoting queen fecundity is reversible and short lived. Synchronization between queen reproductive status and emergence of workers in the nest may ultimately increase the likelihood of early nesting success in social systems with solitary nest founding. Given that bumble bee workers regulate queen physiology as we have demonstrated, the timing of worker emergence in the nest likely impacts queen fitness, colony developmental trajectories and ultimately nesting success. Collectively, our findings underline the importance of conservation interventions for bumble bees that support the early nesting period and facilitate the production and maintenance of workers in young nests.</p>
Abundance and beta-diversity of bumble bees, wildflowers, and their interactions in the Berchtesgadener Alps
<p>The structuring of biological communities along mountain slopes is complex, and elevational range shifts in response to climate change involve more than merely tracking suitable temperature envelopes. When species move, they do so in the context of biological communities, and the outcomes of these movements depend on how and to what extent biotic interactions are reordered. Bumble bees (Hymentopera: *Bombus* spp.) are cold-adapted species associated with mountain habitats, and they are already exhibiting upslope range shifts that are expected to result in habitat loss, novel competitive interactions, and the rewiring of pollination networks. Predicting and interpreting these shifts, however, requires an understanding of the current elevational patterns of bumble bees and their floral mutualists that are being acted upon by climate change. We recorded bumble- bee-flower interactions over three years along an 1400 m elevational gradient in the German Alps. Using nonlinear modeling, we analyze the elevational patterns at the nested levels of species abundance, species β-diversity, and interaction β-diversity. We demonstrate that the tree line ecotone is (1) a distributional interface between low/mid- and high-elevation bumble bee species, (2) a threshold above which floral resource availability sharply decreases, and (3) a zone of accelerated turnover of floral composition and bumble- bee-flower interactions. The implications of these findings extend beyond the particular case of bumble bees to demonstrate that linear elevational temperature gradients are ecologically punctuated, and the outcomes of climate-induced range shifts will depend on dynamics at the tree line ecotone.</p>
Role of pollen flavonoids in the heather-bumble bee-parasite interactions
<p>Upload of scripts and datasets associated with the publication entitled: Role of pollen flavonoids in the heather-bumble bee-parasite interactions.</p>
Data from: Larger pollen loads increase risk of heat stress in foraging bumble bees
<p>Global declines in bumblebee populations are linked to climate change, but specific mechanisms imposing thermal stress on these species are poorly known. Here we examine the potential for heat stress in workers foraging for pollen, an essential resource for colony development. Laboratory studies have shown that pollen foraging causes increased thoracic temperatures (T<sub>th</sub>) in bees, but this effect has not been examined in bumblebees nor in real-world foraging situations. We examine the effects of increasing pollen load size on T<sub>th</sub> of <em>Bombus impatiens</em> workers in the field while accounting for body size and microclimate. We found that T<sub>th</sub> increased by 0.07°C for every mg of pollen carried (p = 0.007), resulting in a 2°C increase across the observed range of pollen load sizes. Bees carrying pollen were predicted to have a T<sub>th</sub> 1.7–2.2°C hotter than those without pollen, suggesting that under certain conditions, pollen loads could cause <em>B. impatiens</em> workers to heat from a safe T<sub>th</sub> to one within the range of critical thermal limits that we measured (41.3°C to 48.4°C). Bumblebees likely adopt behavioral or physiological strategies to counteract the thermal stress induced by pollen foraging and may have limited foraging opportunities as environmental temperatures continue to increase.</p>
Local habitat type influences bumble bee pathogen loads and bee species distribution
<p>Bumble bees (<em>Bombus </em>spp.) perform important ecological services in both managed and natural ecosystems. Anthropogenically-induced change, however, has altered the availability of floral resources, climatic suitability, and exposure to insecticides, factors that impact overall health and disease levels in these bees. Habitat management presents a solution for improving bee health and biodiversity, but this requires better understanding of how different pathogens and bee species respond to habitat conditions. Herein, we take advantage of the washboard of repeated ridges (forested) and valleys (mostly unforested and developed) in central Pennsylvania to examine whether local variation in habitat type and other landscape factors influence bumble bee community composition and the levels of four leading pathogens in the common eastern bumble bee, <em>Bombus impatiens</em>. Loads of viral pathogens (deformed wing virus and black queen cell virus) were found to be lowest in forest habitats, whereas loads of a gut parasite, <em>Crithidia bombi</em>, were highest in forests. Ridgetop forests hosted the most diverse bumble bee communities, including several habitat specialists. <em>B. impatiens</em> was most abundant in valleys, and showed higher incidence in areas of greater disturbance, including more developed, unforested, and lower floral resource sites, a pattern that mirrors its success in the face of anthropogenic change. Additionally, DNA barcoding revealed that <em>B. sandersoni</em> is much more common than is apparent from databases, likely due to misidentification as mimics <em>B. perplexus</em> and <em>B. vagans</em>. Our results provide evidence that habitat type can play a large role in pathogen load dynamics, but in ways that differ by pathogen type, and point to a need for consideration of habitat at both macro-ecological and local spatial scale</p>
Impacts of neonicotinoid insecticides on bumble bee energy metabolism are revealed under nectar starvation
<p>Bumble bees are an important group of insects that provide essential pollination services as a byproduct of their foraging behaviors. These pollination services are driven, in part, by energetic exchanges between flowering plants and individual bees. Thus, it is important to examine bumble bee energy metabolism and explore how it might be influenced by external stressors, which contribute to declines in global pollinator populations. Two stressors that are commonly encountered by bees include insecticides and nutritional stress. Our study examines the effects of neonicotinoid insecticide exposure alone, and in combination with nutritional stress, on bumble bee metabolism using a novel metabolomic approach. We hypothesized that exposure to the insecticide imidacloprid would disrupt bumble bee energy metabolism, leading to changes in key metabolites involved in energy metabolism. We exposed Bombus impatiens workers to imidacloprid according to one of three exposure paradigms designed to explore how sustained versus more limited imidacloprid exposure influences energy metabolites. After bees were exposed to imidacloprid, they were subjected to artificial nectar starvation. Our results showed that the strongest effects of imidacloprid were observed when treated bees also experienced artificial nectar starvation, suggesting a combinatorial effect of neonicotinoids and nutritional stress on energy metabolism. Overall, this study provides important insights into the mechanisms underlying the impact of neonicotinoid insecticides on bumble bees and underscores the need for further investigation into the complex interactions between environmental stressors and bee metabolism.</p>
Data for: Patch fidelity and patch preference of honey bees and bumble bees
<p>Animals commonly exhibit a tendency to return to previously visited locations. Such tendency is manifested at different scales, for example fidelity to a site, or fidelity to a specific patch within a site. Although patch fidelity has important implications for the pollinators and the plants they visit, our understanding of patch fidelity, and the extent to which it varies among bee species, remains limited. Here, we used a mark-reobservation approach to compare patch fidelity and patch size preference between one bumble bee and one honey bee species foraging on patches of <em>Medicago sativa</em> L. Honey bees exhibited greater patch fidelity (76%) than bumble bees (47%); they were more likely to return to the patch where they were marked. Patch size affected the level of patch fidelity for bumble bees but not for honey bees. Bumble bees were more likely to return to larger relative to smaller patches. In addition to patch fidelity, we detected preference of bees for the larger patches. Bees visited the larger patches more often than the smaller patches. These results add patch fidelity to the already known repertoire of differences in foraging strategies between a bumble bee and a honey bee species. It also indicates how the simultaneous study of distinct species in a similar environment can reveal important previously undetected information about their behavioral ecology. Observed differences in patch fidelity and patch size preferences may have important implications for crop pollination and conservation habitat design.</p>
Immune stimulation induced changes to the native gut microbiota of bumble bees
<p>Understanding factors influencing the maintenance and membership of beneficial host-associated microbial communities is central to understanding ecological, evolutionary, and health consequences of these communities for their hosts. Host immunity is often implicated as a potential regulator of these microbiota. However, conversely, immunity may play a disruptive role, with immune responses to infection causing collateral damage. Such effects may be more prominent from innate immune responses, with more rapid-acting and relatively non-specific components. We investigated how upregulation of antibacterial immunity in the bumble bee <em>Bombus</em> <em>impatiens</em> affects the core gut microbiota, testing the hypothesis of immunity-induced perturbation of the beneficial microbiota structure. Freshly emerged adult bees received a native microbiota inoculation before being subjected to non-pathogenic immune stimulation treatments. We quantified the microbial community using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and targeted qPCR. We find colonization of the core member <em>Gilliamella</em> is altered by immune stimulation treatment. Additionally, a positive association in communities between <em>Gilliamella</em> and another core bacteria, <em>Snodgrassella</em> <em>alvi</em>, is perturbed. These changes are indicative of immune-response-induced dysbiosis. As such, the potential for collateral perturbation of beneficial microbial communities upon a host's innate immune response may contribute to immune costs, shaping the evolutionary optimization of immune investment.</p>
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Allen Brain Atlas
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The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
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