Apidologie最新文献

Anthropogenic disturbances have changed the landscape structure and functioning of many ecosystems worldwide. Ecological restoration at the landscape level is important to recover degraded and destroyed ecosystems, as well as increase habitat amount and spatial connectivity, thus reestablishing biodiversity and essential ecological processes. Different local and landscape factors affect the recovery of animal communities in general, particularly bees. These insects are essential for restoration success through pollination. Considering the importance of ecological restoration at the landscape level for pollinator conservation, we systematically reviewed the influence of landscape structure on the restoration of bee communities. Our review encompassed the analysis of 18 articles based on specific criteria including the number of bee sampling units within restored areas and landscape analyses. These studies showed that habitat amount and proximity influence in different ways the bee richness, abundance, diversity, and species composition in the restored environments. We also observed that attributes linked to habitat complexity such as the availability of floral and nesting resources drive the bee species’ colonization and persistence. Our findings emphasize the necessity of designing restoration strategies considering the spatial and temporal distribution of bee species requirements on a landscape scale.

The heteroplasmic mitogenome of the stingless bee Tetragonula laeviceps from Peninsular Malaysia consists of two variants (TL1-1 and TL1-2), both with 29,084 bp consisting of two segments: the “canonical” segment contains 36 genes—13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA, and 21 tRNA genes; and the inverted repeat segment consists of 31 genes (11 PCGs, 2 rRNAs, and 18 tRNAs). In the TL1-2 variant, the (nad4-nad4L-trnP-trnS1) gene segment in the “canonical” genome of the TL1-1 variant was inverted to (trnS1-trnP-nad4-nad4L). Phylogenetic analyses based on 13 PCGs and 15 mt-genes reveal that T. laeviceps from Peninsular Malaysia and China form a lineage in the subclade consisting also of the Tetragonula lineage of T. mellipes, T. davenporti, T. carbonaria, and T. hockingsi. The genetic distances of 13 PCGs and 15 mt-genes between T. laeviceps of Peninsular Malaysia and China (p = over 10%) and between the taxa of China (p = about or over 10%) indicate that these three taxa are genetically distinct, reflecting the presence of a species complex. The large genetic distances, based on COX1 sequences, of p = over 10% among the taxa of T. laeviceps of China, Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Indonesia, and India indicate beyond reasonable doubt that they are not conspecific. Assuming that the Peninsular Malaysian taxon is T. laeviceps s.str., the taxa of China, Sabah, Indonesia, and India (as well as Thailand based on the 16S rRNA gene) warrant to be accorded as distinct cryptic species. Likewise, the taxonomic status of some taxa (e.g., Tetragonula fuscobalteata of Sabah and Sulawesi) needs clarification.

Beekeepers routinely substitute honey from managed Western honeybee, Apis mellifera, colonies with sugar water post-harvest, potentially leading to malnutrition. Although nutritional supplements have been created, a general consensus on proper colony nutrition for beekeeping has yet to be reached. Thus, finding easily obtainable fortified A. mellifera food alternatives is still of interest. Here, we test plant powder–enriched food supplements since evidence suggests plant extracts can enhance dry body weight and longevity of workers. Freshly emerged workers were kept in hoarding cages (N = 69 days) and fed either with 50% (w/v) sucrose solution alone or additionally with one of 12 powders: Laurus nobilis, Quercus spp., Curcuma longa, Hypericum spp., Spirulina platensis, Calendula officinalis, Chlorella vulgaris, Melissa officinalis, Moringa oleifera, Rosa canina, Trigonella foenum-graecum, and Urtica dioica (N = 2028 workers total). The dry body weight was significantly increased in Quercus spp., Hypericum spp., Spirulina platensis, M. officinalis, M. oleifera, and T. foenum-graecum treatments. Further, the longevity was significantly increased in Quercus spp., C. longa, C. officinalis, C. vulgaris, M. officinalis, R. canina, T. foenum-graecum, and U. dioica treatments. Given that plant extracts can enhance A. mellifera health (i.e., phenolics, flavonoids), plant powders possibly provide additional macro- (i.e., proteins, lipids, peptides) and micronutrients (minerals and vitamins) thereby enhancing nutrient availability. Further investigations into the mechanisms underlying these effects and field studies are recommended to validate these findings in real-hive scenarios.

The honeybee queen is the engine of the colony, laying thousands of eggs that develop into larvae, nurse bees, and foragers. In turn, pollen and nectar from the environment, matured into bee bread and honey in the hive, transformed by digestion to royal jelly by the worker community, fuel queen egg-laying. The queen relies on this food supply chain to produce large numbers of eggs during the high season when pollen and nectar are in abundance. Despite the importance of egg-laying for the productivity of a colony, few studies have evaluated the influence of nutrition on the quantity and quality of eggs. This review aims to describe food processing from the queen’s mouth to egg provisioning, by exploring the nutritional cues that trigger queen egg-laying, the subsequent pathways involved, and the factors that influence them.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the sea acts as a geographical barrier to gene flow in Xylocopa frontalis. To achieve this, 90 female individuals from three geographic populations were analyzed. These populations were collected from the north coast of the state of São Paulo (Brazil) in mainland and insular areas. The genetic variability was assessed by sequencing two regions of the mitochondrial genome (COI and Cytb) and by genotyping 12 microsatellite loci. The results showed that there was no population genetic structure for both mitochondrial and nuclear markers, indicating a low rate of inbreeding. The analyses suggest that gene flow occurs between mainland and island populations mediated by both females and males.

There is growing interest in selective breeding of the honeybee, resulting in the emergence of new breeding projects, often with an emphasis on improving resilience traits, in particular toward brood diseases. Lately, feed autonomy is also gaining importance. Here, we use data from a small breeding nucleus in France to estimate genetic parameters for common bee breeding traits and a novel trait reflecting honey reserves in the brood chamber. Open-mated queens were produced each year from inseminated dams between 2019 and 2021, and ~330 colonies were phenotyped each following year at three periods during the entire beekeeping season. Genetic parameters were estimated using ReML with an animal model. Narrow-sense heritability estimates ranged from low (around 0.15) for calmness and total capped brood surface both measured in early summer, to moderate (0.30 to 0.40) for hygienic behavior in spring, honey yield, and phoretic V. destructor load in early summer. Honey reserves in the brood chamber showed an intermediate heritability throughout the season (around 0.25). Gentleness had a null heritability. Most correlations between phenotypes adjusted for environmental fixed effects were close to zero. Among exceptions, there were honey reserves in the brood chamber in early summer with honey yield (around −0.2) and with the total capped brood surface in early summer (around −0.3). These estimates, although uncertain due to the dataset size, suggest that selection for production and resilience will be effective, even though simultaneous selection for honey yield and feed reserves might be difficult due to a possible genetic antagonism between both traits.

Tetrapedia amplitarsis is an oil-collecting solitary bee that nests in pre-existing cavities and differs from the other species of the genus in several biological aspects, as nest architecture and phenology. The aim of this study is to present detailed information on its nesting biology. Monthly field sampling was conducted from December 2011 to November 2013 using trap-nests in the Serra do Japi, Jundiaí, São Paulo, Brazil. Thirty nests were sampled, in which 168 brood cells were built. The nests consisted of molded cells in urn shape, made with a mixture of sandy material and floral oil, in linear series with horizontal orientation. Completed nests had one to 14 brood cells. Most nesting activities occurred in the hot/wet season, and the offspring emerged in the cold/dry season. The offspring time development ranged from 24 to 316 days, suggesting a univoltine life cycle but with the possibility of the occurrence of a second generation. The sex ratio was significantly female-biased (2.62♀:1♂). Unknown causes and fratricide were the main factors of mortality. Dermestes sp, microlepidoptera, and Anthrax oedipus were the natural enemies associated with the nests. Our results highlight a different Tetrapedia bee, for which many biological aspects are yet to be studied.

Social interactions with heterospecifics can yield important insights into the flexibility of behaviour and the role of learning in communication. Recently, the honeybee dance, a unique symbolic communication system to communicate positions in space, has been shown to involve learning. We asked if this communication system could potentially be learned by members of a species not normally using this communication system, the bumblebee(Bombus terrestris)—indicating that learning might have been at the origins of dance communication. We used mixed-species colonies of bumblebees and honeybees (Apis millefera) to investigate how the readiness to first establish contact with dancers might develop in uninformed bumblebee foragers. Over a month of observations, we recorded and classified a series of behavioural patterns in newly emerged honeybees introduced into queenright bumblebee colonies. A small subset of the introduced honeybees was able to establish in the nests and displayed their typical behavioural patterns, including homing, dance communication, trophallaxis, and social grooming. Remarkably, grooming and trophallaxis were also displayed to heterospecifics, and bumblebees accepted both, including food offered through trophallaxis, even though this behaviour is not normally used by bumblebees. However, bumblebees never attended honeybees’ waggle dances. Our results contribute to insights about bee social behaviour and cognition by providing a fascinating example of the adaptive use and modification of innate behaviour.

The quality of the queen is crucial for the survival and growth of honey bee colonies. There have been studies related to raising queens with excellent performance since the invention of artificial queen rearing technologies. However, relatively few studies have been undertaken that evaluate the relationship between queen quality and queen morphology and the expression level of reproduction-related genes using different-aged brood in artificial queen rearing practices of Eastern honey bees (Apis cerana). Therefore, we transferred eggs, 1-day-old larvae, 2-day-old larvae, and 3-day-old larvae to queen cells to rear queens until the queen emerged. We measured 12 indicators (the acceptance rate, birth weight, length, caliber and maximum diameter of queen cells, thorax length, width and weight, head width, wing length and width, and number of ovarian tubes). Moreover, the relative expression levels of Hexamerin, Vitellogenin, and Transferrin were measured using fat bodies and ovaries dissected from the newly emerged virgin queens. The results showed that queens reared from eggs exhibited the best morphological indexes and occupied the most abundant reproductive related gene expression level. Parameter values for queen from 1-day-old larvae were significantly higher than those for queens from 2-day-old larvae and 3-day-old larvae, and there was no significant difference between values for queens from 2-day-old larvae and 3-day-old larvae in most data, except for the relative gene expression. In conclusion, as the age of the brood increased, the quality of the queen bees declined. Rearing queens from fertilized eggs are far more likely to yield a better outcome for queen performance and colony function. This study provides data support for raising high-quality queens of Apis cerana, which would be benefit for the protection and better utilization of our native honey bee species.