Examination of Hivetop Incubator Efficacy for Emerging Osmia lignaria (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) and the Impact on Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Colonies.

Osmia lignaria Say is used in combination with Apis mellifera L. to pollinate U.S.

Novel Microsatellite Markers for Osmia lignaria (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae): A North American Pollinator of Agricultural Crops and Wildland Plants.

Comprehensive decisions on the management of commercially produced bees, depend largely on associated knowledge of genetic diversity. In this study, we present novel microsatellite markers to support the breeding, management, and conservation of the blue orchard bee, Osmia lignaria Say (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Native to North America, O.

Effects of Provision Type and Pesticide Exposure on the Larval Development of Osmia lignaria (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae).

Wild and managed bee populations are in decline, and one of many environmental causes is the impact of pesticides on developing bees. For solitary bees, delayed larval development could lead to asynchronous adult emergence, unhealthy and inefficient adult pollinators, and decreased brood production and survival. We examined a methodology for testing Osmia lignaria Say (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) larval responses to pesticide exposure using a laboratory bioassay.

Genetic and Usurpation Data Support High Incidence of Bumble Bee Nest Invasion by Socially Parasitic Bumble Bee, Bombus insularis.

Cuckoo bumble bees (Psithyrus) (Lepeletier, 1832) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) are a unique lineage of bees that depend exclusively on a host bumble bee species to provide nesting material, nutritional resources, and labor to rear offspring. In this study, we document usurpation incidence and population genetic data of Bombus insularis (Smith, 1861) (Hymenoptera: Apidae), a bumble bee species in the Psithyrus subgenus, on field-deployed B. huntii colonies in northern Utah, United States.

Diet Breadth Affects Bacterial Identity but Not Diversity in the Pollen Provisions of Closely Related Polylectic and Oligolectic Bees.

Mounting evidence suggests that microbes found in the pollen provisions of wild and solitary bees are important drivers of larval development. As these microbes are also known to be transmitted via the environment, most likely from flowers, the diet breadth of a bee may affect the diversity and identity of the microbes that occur in its pollen provisions. Here, we tested the hypothesis that, due to the importance of floral transmission of microbes, diet breadth affects pollen provision microbial community composition.

Bombus (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Microcolonies as a Tool for Biological Understanding and Pesticide Risk Assessment.

Bumble bees provide valuable pollination services to many wild and agricultural plants. Populations of some bumble bee species are in decline, prompting the need to better understand bumble bee biology and to develop methodologies for assessing the effects of environmental stressors on these bees. Use of bumble bee microcolonies as an experimental tool is steadily increasing.

Floral and Foliar Source Affect the Bee Nest Microbial Community.

Managed pollinators such as the alfalfa leafcutting bee, Megachile rotundata, are essential to the production of a wide variety of agricultural crops. These pollinators encounter a diverse array of microbes when foraging for food and nest-building materials on various plants. To test the hypothesis that food and nest-building source affects the composition of the bee-nest microbiome, we exposed M.

Workshop on Pesticide Exposure Assessment Paradigm for Non-Apis Bees: Foundation and Summaries.

Current pesticide risk assessment practices use the honey bee, Apis mellifera L., as a surrogate to characterize the likelihood of chemical exposure of a candidate pesticide for all bee species. Bees make up a diverse insect group that provides critical pollination services to both managed and wild ecosystems.

Genomes of the Hymenoptera.

Hymenoptera is the second-most sequenced arthropod order, with 52 publically archived genomes (71 with ants, reviewed elsewhere), however these genomes do not capture the breadth of this very diverse order (Figure 1, Table 1). These sequenced genomes represent only 15 of the 97 extant families. Although at least 55 other genomes are in progress in an additional 11 families (see Table 2), stinging wasps represent 35 (67%) of the available and 42 (76%) of the in progress genomes.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and bee age impact honey bee pathophysiology.

Honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies continue to experience high annual losses that remain poorly explained. Numerous interacting factors have been linked to colony declines. Understanding the pathways linking pathophysiology with symptoms is an important step in understanding the mechanisms of disease.

An Inert Pesticide Adjuvant Synergizes Viral Pathogenicity and Mortality in Honey Bee Larvae.

Honey bees are highly valued for their pollination services in agricultural settings, and recent declines in managed populations have caused concern. Colony losses following a major pollination event in the United States, almond pollination, have been characterized by brood mortality with specific symptoms, followed by eventual colony loss weeks later. In this study, we demonstrate that these symptoms can be produced by chronically exposing brood to both an organosilicone surfactant adjuvant (OSS) commonly used on many agricultural crops including wine grapes, tree nuts and tree fruits and exogenous viral pathogens by simulating a horizontal transmission event.

Characterization of viral siRNA populations in honey bee colony collapse disorder.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a special case of collapse of honey bee colonies, has resulted in significant losses for beekeepers. CCD-colonies show abundance of pathogens which suggests that they have a weakened immune system. Since honey bee viruses are major players in colony collapse and given the important role of viral RNA interference (RNAi) in combating viral infections we investigated if CCD-colonies elicit an RNAi response.

Cross-species transmission of honey bee viruses in associated arthropods.

There are a number of RNA virus pathogens that represent a serious threat to the health of managed honey bees (Apis mellifera). That some of these viruses are also found in the broader pollinator community suggests the wider environmental spread of these viruses, with the potential for a broader impact on ecosystems. Studies on the ecology and evolution of these viruses in the arthropod community as a whole may therefore provide important insights into these potential impacts.

Rethinking vector immunology: the role of environmental temperature in shaping resistance.

Recent ecological research has revealed that environmental factors can strongly affect insect immunity and influence the outcome of host-parasite interactions. To date, however, most studies examining immune function in mosquitoes have ignored environmental variability. We argue that one such environmental variable, temperature, influences both vector immunity and the parasite itself.

Lack of evidence for an association between Iridovirus and colony collapse disorder.

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is characterized by the unexplained losses of large numbers of adult worker bees (Apis mellifera) from apparently healthy colonies. Although infections, toxins, and other stressors have been associated with the onset of CCD, the pathogenesis of this disorder remains obscure. Recently, a proteomics study implicated a double-stranded DNA virus, invertebrate iridescent virus (Family Iridoviridae) along with a microsporidium (Nosema sp.

Large-scale field application of RNAi technology reducing Israeli acute paralysis virus disease in honey bees (Apis mellifera, Hymenoptera: Apidae).

The importance of honey bees to the world economy far surpasses their contribution in terms of honey production; they are responsible for up to 30% of the world's food production through pollination of crops. Since fall 2006, honey bees in the U.S.

Weighing risk factors associated with bee colony collapse disorder by classification and regression tree analysis.

Colony collapse disorder (CCD), a syndrome whose defining trait is the rapid loss of adult worker honey bees, Apis mellifera L., is thought to be responsible for a minority of the large overwintering losses experienced by U.S.

Contributions of immune responses to developmental resistance in Lymantria dispar challenged with baculovirus.

How the innate immune system functions to defend insects from viruses is an emerging field of study. We examined the impact of melanized encapsulation, a component of innate immunity that integrates both cellular and humoral immune responses, on the success of the baculovirus Lymantria dispar multiple nucleocapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (LdMNPV) in its host L. dispar.

Pathogenesis of Lymantria dispar multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus in L. dispar and mechanisms of developmental resistance.

Lymantria dispar has a long historical association with the baculovirus Lymantria dispar multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (LdMNPV), which is one of the primary population regulators of L. dispar in the field. However, host larvae exhibit strong developmental resistance to fatal infection by LdMNPV; the LD50 in newly moulted fourth instars is 18-fold lower than in the middle of the instar (48-72 h post-moult).

Colony collapse disorder: a descriptive study.

Background: Over the last two winters, there have been large-scale, unexplained losses of managed honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies in the United States. In the absence of a known cause, this syndrome was named Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) because the main trait was a rapid loss of adult worker bees.