Asides

http://www.gizmag.com/bee-obstacle-avoidance-drones/42675/

Dense forests crowded with branches and leaves provide quite the obstacle course for fast-moving insects. How they are able to identify gaps to move through seems to defy their small brains and low resolution eyesight. Researchers at Sweden’s Lund University have now uncovered the tricks the animals use to navigate these tight spaces without running into trouble.

http://www.gizmag.com/bee-obstacle-avoidance-drones/42675/

Dense forests crowded with branches and leaves provide quite the obstacle course for fast-moving insects. How they are able to identify gaps to move through seems to defy their small brains and low resolution eyesight. Researchers at Sweden’s Lund University have now uncovered the tricks the animals use to navigate these tight spaces without running into trouble.

http://www.naturalnews.com/053562_bee_colonies_population_decline_herbicides.html#

“Our results suggest that current levels of pesticide exposure could be significantly affecting how bees are interacting with wild plants, and impairing the crucial pollination services they provide that support healthy ecosystem function,” he said.

In other words, if herbicides hinder bumblebees’ ability to learn and adapt, then wild bees could become increasingly sensitive to changes in the environment. According to a separate review, an estimated 57 different herbicides are poisoning European honey bees, which is contributing to the rapidly declining bee population worldwide.

http://www.naturalnews.com/053562_bee_colonies_population_decline_herbicides.html#

“Our results suggest that current levels of pesticide exposure could be significantly affecting how bees are interacting with wild plants, and impairing the crucial pollination services they provide that support healthy ecosystem function,” he said.

In other words, if herbicides hinder bumblebees’ ability to learn and adapt, then wild bees could become increasingly sensitive to changes in the environment. According to a separate review, an estimated 57 different herbicides are poisoning European honey bees, which is contributing to the rapidly declining bee population worldwide.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/uoia-ssc033016.php

Their study, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that N. bombi was present in the U.S. as early as 1980, well before several species of wild bumble bees started to go missing across the country. The study also found that N. bombi infections in large-scale commercial bumble bee pollination operations coincided with infections and declines in wild bumble bees

http://www.agprofessional.com/news/new-research-virus-transmissions-between-honey-bees

Interspecific transfers of viruses between the western honey bee (Apis mellifera) and the eastern honey bee (Apis cerana) are rare, even if honey bees are kept in close proximity, new research reveals. Elevated global losses of managed western honey …

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/asu-sab032916.php

In two new studies, researchers from Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences have discovered that the stress of short-term nutritional deprivation as larvae (baby bees) actually makes honey bees more resilient to starvation as adults.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/asu-sab032916.php

In two new studies, researchers from Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences have discovered that the stress of short-term nutritional deprivation as larvae (baby bees) actually makes honey bees more resilient to starvation as adults.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/dec/26/winter-scent-honeysuckle-wintersweet-gardening-alys-fowler

If you make a winter honeysuckle (Lonicera x purpusii) happy, it dusts itself in creamy-white, highly fragrant flowers. Like many winter-flowering species, its scent is so strong that it carries for some distance – I’ve often found myself, nose up in …