Honeybee

Inevitably, terrestrial invertebrates are susceptible to the toxicity of OPs used in the field. The honeybee is one species of particular importance, and the use of OPs and other insecticides on agricultural land has been restricted to minimize toxicity to this species. One practice has been to avoid application of hazardous chemicals to crops when there are foraging bees. The use of some compounds, for example, triazophos, has been restricted because of very high toxicity to honeybees. 

At a more subtle level, behavioral disturbances may make it more difficult for animals to find food. Pyrethroids, carbamates, OPs, and neonicotinoids can disturb the foraging activity of bees (Thompson 2003). Interestingly, effects have been shown upon the wagtail dance of bees, and this disrupts communication between individuals as to the location of nectar-bearing plants. Also, the neonicotinoid imidacloprid has been shown to adversely affect conditioned responses such as proboscis extension of honeybees (Guez et al. 2001). Nicotinoids can disturb the functioning of cholinergic synapses, which are involved in the operation of the proboscis reflex as... 

Pilling, E.D. (1992). Evidence for pesticide synergism in the honeybee. Aspects of Applied Biology 31,43 7. 

Pilling, E.D. (1993). Synergism between EBI Fungicides and a Pyrethroid Insecticide in the Honeybee. Ph.D. Thesis Southampton University, U.K. 

Pilling, E.D., Bromley-ChaUenor, K.A.C., and Walker, C.H. et al. (1995). Mechanism of synergism between the pyrethroid insecticide lambda cyhalothrin and the imidazole fungicide prochloraz in the honeybee. Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology 51, 1-11. 

Venoms causing anaphylaxis or other allergic reactions originate almost exclusively from social Hymenoptera, most often honeybees and vespids (fig. 1) [1], occasionally from bumble bees [2], in America [3] and in Australia [4], also from ants. Stings by other insects like mosquitoes, bedbugs, fleas, horse flies and midges can very rarely also cause systemic allergic reactions. These are however not due to venoms but to... 

Benton AW, Morse RA, Stewart JD Venom collection from honeybees. Science 1963 142 228-229. 

Beker, R., Dafni, A., Eiskowiteh, D. and Ravid, U. 1989. Volatiles of two chemotypes of Majorana syriaca L. (Labiatae) as olfactory cues for the honeybee. Oecologia 79 446 51. 

The activity of a-, p-, and y-amylase is usually used as an important quality parameter of honey, according to the Directive 2001/110/CE (Voldrich et al, 2009). Amylase in honey mainly originates from the salivary secretions of honeybees, which was concluded based on fhe presence of amylase in honey produced by sugar-fed honeybees (Sfadelmeier and Bergner, 1986) and on similarities between honey and... 

Crailsheim, K. (1992). The flow of jelly within a honeybee colony. /. Comp. Physiol. B 162, 681-689. 

Echigo, T. and Takenaka, T. (1974). Production of organic acids in honey by honeybees. Nippon Nogei Kagaku Kaishi 48,225-230. 

Free, J. B. (1957). The food of adult drone honeybees (Apis melUfera). Br. J. Anim. Behav. 5,7-11. 

Simiith, J. (2001). Some properties of the main protein of honeybee (Apis mellifera) royal jelly. Apidologie 32, 69-80. 

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