Queen Mary University of London Hundreds of bees with individual coloured number tags will be released from the rooftops of Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) on Tuesday 21 June and over the next month for a project that hopes to uncover the secret lives of London's bees. Biologists from QMUL's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences will attach weather-resistant number tags …
PITTSBURGH – June 20, 2016 – The Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association (PSBA) is kicking off National Pollinator Week (June 20-16) with the launch of its Bee Friendly PA Program, an effort designed to recognize communities throughout the Commonwealth for their efforts in supporting honeybee health through legislation, education, pest management, green space care and “Honeybee health is critical to supporting …
Part of 4-year, $1 million Healthy Hives 2020 Initiative to Find Tangible Solutions to Improve Colony Health Paso Robles, Calif. (June 20, 2016) – Project Apis m. announced today the names of scientists and research projects seeking to answer key questions around bee health to receive funding as part of the Healthy Hives 2020 initiative. Healthy Hives 2020 is an …
In a new study, scientists have compared the ability of two strains of honey bees to defend themselves against the parasitic mite varroa by grooming the mites from their bodies. The varroa mite Varroa destructor is generally considered to be the greatest threat to honey bees worldwide because it transmits virus diseases which lead to colony death. Treatments by various chemicals …
University of Texas at Austin According to a new study by The University of Texas at Austin, increasing the diversity of pollinator species, including bees, flies and butterflies, can dramatically increase cotton production. The researchers estimate that in South Texas, the region they studied, increasing the diversity of pollinators could boost cotton production by up to 18 percent, yielding an increase …
Genes related to hormone signaling and sex cell division let worker bees reproduce asexually PLOS Parasitic cape honey bees exploit and overrun other honey bee colonies by triggering changes that let worker bees reproduce. This social parasitism is enabled by differences in several gene regions, including some related to hormone signaling and chromosomal segregation, report Andreas Wallberg and Matthew T. Webster …
Pensoft Publishers An Australian small carpenter bee is visiting a flower. Credit: Marc Newman, http://www.padil.gov.au/pollinators/pest/main/138706 The Australian small carpenter bee populations appear to have dramatically flourished in the period of global warming following the last Ice Age some 18,000 years ago. The bee species is found in sub-tropical, coastal and desert areas from the north-east to the south of Australia. Researchers Rebecca Dew and …
Purdue University WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University study shows that honey bees collect the vast majority of their pollen from plants other than crops, even in areas dominated by corn and soybeans, and that pollen is consistently contaminated with a host of agricultural and urban pesticides throughout the growing season. Christian Krupke, professor of entomology, and then-postdoctoral researcher Elizabeth Long …