Field-relevant doses of the systemic insecticide fipronil and fungicide pyraclostrobin impair mandibular and hypopharyngeal glands in nurse honeybees (Apis mellifera).

ABSTRACT: Global decreases in bee populations emphasize the importance of assessing how environmental stressors affect colony maintenance, especially considering the extreme task specialization observed in honeybee societies. Royal jelly, a protein secretion essential to colony nutrition, is produced by nurse honeybees, and development of bee mandibular glands, which comprise a reservoir surrounded by secretory cells and hypopharyngeal glands that are shaped by acini, is directly associated with production of this secretion. Here, we examined individual and combined effects of the systemic fungicide pyraclostrobin and insecticide fipronil in field-relevant doses (850 and 2.5 ppb, respectively) on mandibular and hypopharyngeal glands in nurse honeybees. Six days of pesticide treatment decreased secre

SUBMITTER: Zaluski R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5680249 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature