Bee

Latest Bee News and Research

Biodiversity in the city: Sown meadows as urban refuges for pollinators

In a recent article, researchers investigated the role of sown wildflower meadows in urban areas. They found that they effectively support pollinator populations, particularly bees and hoverflies, while natural meadows remain vital for butterflies.

2 Dec 2024

Study Reveals How eDNA Could Bear Fruit for Farmers and the Environment

A Curtin University study has revealed a new method of capturing DNA could provide farmers with a valuable tool for boosting crop production — while also benefiting the environment.

29 Nov 2024

Bioengineered Yeast Achieves Breakthrough in Mass-Producing Herbal Medicine

Herbal medicine is difficult to produce on an industrial scale. A team of Kobe University bioengineers manipulated the cellular machinery in a species of yeast so that one such molecule can now be produced in a fermenter at unprecedented concentrations.

14 Nov 2024

Cryo-EM Technology Paves the Way for Major Biological Discovery

Ben Orlando's research talk at MSU's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2019 laid the groundwork for a team effort that had been developing for decades.

25 Oct 2024

AmelHap: A Honeybee Haplotype Map

Beebytes is very happy to have achieved its first publication, the development of a ‘HapMap’ for honey bees, in collaboration with the Roslin Institute, the University of the Basque Country in Spain, and the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) in France.

From Beebytes Analytics 30 Aug 2024

Pesticide Exposure Strongly Correlated with Fewer Wild Bee Sightings

Whether you're strolling through a garden, wandering a park, or simply enjoying an open space in the United States, you're likely to notice bees buzzing about the flowers. While honeybees, imported from Europe in the 17th century to produce honey, are the most recognizable, they aren't the only bees at work. If you're a keen observer, you might spot some of the thousands of less familiar, native bee species that call these spaces home.

28 Aug 2024

Honeybees Contribute to Bumble Bee Virus Prevalence

Honey bees might contribute to rising virus levels in wild bumble bees each spring, according to Penn State researchers who studied seasonal patterns of parasite and virus transmission in bees.

22 Aug 2024

Determining Sex in Ants

Researchers at the universities of Mainz and Lausanne have identified a noncoding gene as the deciding factor in determining sex in Argentine ants.

From University of Mainz 7 Jun 2024

Insights Into Adaptation of Aspergillus flavus in Honey Bee Colonies

The past attempts of honey bee researchers to inventory the fungal diversity in honey bee colonies revealed that Aspergillus flavus is frequently found in hives.

22 May 2024

The Impact of Flowering Season on Bee Colony Survival

Plant species that are classified as “pollinator friendly” in Europe start flowering up to a month too late in the spring to successfully aid in bee conservation, according to a new study from the Universities of Oxford and Exeter.

25 Mar 2024

Honey Bees Show Remarkable Heat Tolerance with Metabolic Adjustments

A University of Wyoming scientist’s research has shown that honey bees carrying nectar have the amazing ability to modify their flight behavior to prevent overheating when air temperatures rise.

14 Feb 2024

Honeybees Directly Provide Nutrients to Gut Bacteria

Bacteria have adapted to all terrestrial environments. Some have evolved to survive in the gut of animals, where they play an important role for their host; they provide energy by degrading indigestible food, they train and regulate the immune system, they protect against invasion by pathogenic bacteria, and they synthesize neuroactive molecules that regulate the behavior and cognition of their host.

16 Jan 2024

Pesticide Sprays and Olfactory Disruption in Honey Bee Communication

For a considerable period, the detrimental impact of pesticide sprays on honey bees has been recognized. In a recent study, researchers have unraveled the consequences of such sprays on the sense of smell in bees, potentially disrupting their social signals.

18 Dec 2023

Pesticides Harm Bumblebees, Even After Regulations Tightened

A new study has confirmed that pesticides, commonly used in farmland, significantly harm bumblebees – one of the most important wild pollinators.

30 Nov 2023

Centralized Tool Revolutionizes Global Bee Data

A centralized tool named BeeBCD has emerged as a powerful solution for addressing substantial gaps in public bee data, particularly from regions like Africa and Asia, which have been underrepresented.

6 Nov 2023

Australasia’s Overlooked Pollination Crisis Could Lead to Biodiversity Loss and Food Insecurity

Australasia has likely overlooked a pollination crisis, according to new research published today in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

31 Oct 2023

Two Bee Species Become One as Researchers Solve Identity Puzzle

A new study by Curtin and Flinders Universities has found that what were thought to be two different species of native Australian bee are in fact one.

30 Oct 2023

Bumblebees Have an Effective Defense Mechanism Against Asian Hornets

New research reveals that bumblebees have developed a highly effective strategy to defend against Asian hornets.

6 Oct 2023

The Recognition of Polymorphic Csd Proteins Defines Sex in Honeybees

Until now, it has been unknown how a bee’s sex is decided. A team of biologists and chemists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has found a critical gene and the chemical process that goes with it. They describe how this process is analogous to a dice game in the current edition of the scholarly journal Science Advances.

5 Oct 2023

Identifying Genetic Differences Underlying Pollination Syndromes in Wildflowers

Recent research led by Carolyn Wessinger at the University of South Carolina, USA, and colleagues discovered that substantial variations in flower traits among wildflowers, driven by different pollinators, can be attributed to a select set of crucial genetic distinctions.

29 Sep 2023