bees, ecology

Once considered anosmic, birds are now widely recognized as using olfactory cues to aid in a wide range of behaviors.

A decade-long study tallies the numbers of pest-eating, flower-pollinating hoverflies that travel to the UK every year, and illustrates their important ecological roles in southern Britain.

Over 30 years, one-third of the wild bees and hoverfly species surveyed sustained losses, likely due to pesticides, habitat loss, and climate change.

A high-tech approach to monitoring bee activity inside the nest reveals how the neonicotinoid imidacloprid impairs colony growth.

Researchers pinpoint a protein that can metabolize at least one of the insecticides, highlighting a route to identifying compounds that are friendlier to the critical pollinators.

Important pollinators under threat from habitat destruction, bumblebees may find refuge on vacant land throughout Michigan’s largest metropolis.

See the urban landscapes in Detroit where researchers are studying the fates of pollinators that adopt a metropolitan lifestyle.

Scientists report that thiamethoxam exposure impairs bumblebees’ reproduction and honey bees’ ability to fly.

Mummy berry disease coats blueberry leaves with sweet, sticky stains that smell like flowers, luring in passing insects to spread fungal spores.

The federal government concludes the rusty patched bumblebee is nearing extinction.

Exposure to neonicotinoid pesticides is correlated with population declines of a large number of wild bee species, according to a field study conducted in the U.K.

Sorting the Beef from the Bull, Cheats and Deceits, A Sea of Glass, and Following the Wild Bees

One study shows the insects prefer food laced with pesticides, while another adds to the evidence that the chemicals are harmful to some pollinators.

The effects of neonicotinoid use on insect populations appear to be rippling through the food chain, scientists show.

Yet another study demonstrates that how pesticides might be related to the collapse of wild bee colonies.

Bees exposed to neonicotinoids, a widely-used class of pesticide, navigate poorly and produce fewer queens, suggesting a role for neonicotinoids in colony collapse.

A round-up of recent discoveries in behavior research