Social insects are able to mount both group-level and individual defences against pathogens. Here we focus on individual defences, by presenting a genome-wide analysis of immunity in a social insect, the honey bee Apis mellifera. We present honey bee models for each of four signalling pathways associated with immunity, identifying plausible orthologues for nearly all predicted pathway members. When compared to the sequenced Drosophila and Anopheles genomes, honey bees possess roughly one-third as many genes in 17 gene families implicated in insect immunity. We suggest that an implied reduction in immune flexibility in bees reflects either the strength of social barriers to disease, or a tendency for bees to be attacked by a limited set of highly coevolved pathogens.
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There may be people who like centipedes. I have seen people handling tarantulas and scorpions, but never a centipede handler. I would regard such a person with deep suspicion...Now what sort of man or woman or monster would stroke a centipede on its underbelly "And here is my big good centipede." If such a man exists, I say kill him without more ado. He is a traitor to the human race.
Parasites, Pathogens, and Polyandry in Honey Bees
Paul W. Sherman
Thomas D. Seeley
Hudson K. Reeve
Section of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
Received August 5, 1997; accepted November 7, 1997 _________________
Quote:
There may be people who like centipedes. I have seen people handling tarantulas and scorpions, but never a centipede handler. I would regard such a person with deep suspicion...Now what sort of man or woman or monster would stroke a centipede on its underbelly "And here is my big good centipede." If such a man exists, I say kill him without more ado. He is a traitor to the human race.
Communal use of integumental wounds in honey bee (Apis mellifera) pupae multiply infested by the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor
Ghazwan Kanbar and Wolf Engels
Department of Developmental Biology, Zoological Institute, University of Tübingen,
Auf der Morgenstelle 28, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany
Corresponding author: W. Engels
E-mail: wolf.engels@uni-tuebingen.de
Genet. Mol. Res. 4 (3): 465-472 (2005)
Received March 21, 2005
Accepted April 6, 2005
Published August 9, 2005
ABSTRACT. The ectoparasitic bee mite, Varroa destructor, is highly adapted to its natural and adopted honey bee hosts, Apis cerana and Apis mellifera. Adult females perforate the integument of bee pupae in such a way that they and their progeny can feed. We examined the wounds that founder females made, and usually found one, and rarely up to three, integumental wounds on pupae of A. mellifera multiply infested by V. destructor. The punctures were mainly on the 2nd abdominal sternite of the host. These perforations are used repeatedly as feeding sites by these hemolymph-sucking mites and by their progeny. The diameter of the wounds increased during pupal development. In brood cells containing 4-5 invading female mites and their progeny, healing of the wound is delayed, normally occurring just before the imaginal moult of the bee pupa. These wounds are subject to microbial infections, and they are relevant to the evolution of behavioral traits in these parasitic mites and their relations to host bees.
There may be people who like centipedes. I have seen people handling tarantulas and scorpions, but never a centipede handler. I would regard such a person with deep suspicion...Now what sort of man or woman or monster would stroke a centipede on its underbelly "And here is my big good centipede." If such a man exists, I say kill him without more ado. He is a traitor to the human race.
"Greenhouse" bees spread disease to wild bees By Will Dunham
Wed Jul 23, 11:02 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Disease spread to wild bees from commercially bred bees used for pollination in agriculture greenhouses may be playing a role in the mysterious decline in North American bee populations, researchers said on Tuesday.
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Bees pollinate numerous crops, and scientists have been expressing alarm over their falling numbers in recent years in North America. Experts warn the bee disappearance eventually could harm agriculture and the food supply.
Scientists have been struggling to understand the recent decline in various bee populations in North America. For example, a virus brought from Australia has been implicated in massive honeybee deaths last year.
Canadian researchers studied another type of bee, the bumblebee, near two large greenhouse operations in southern Ontario where commercially reared pollination bees are used in the growing of crops such as tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers.
The researchers first observed that the commercial bumblebees regularly flew in and out of vents in the sides of the greenhouses, escaping from the facilities.
The researchers then devised a mathematical model to predict how disease might spread from this "spillover" of runaway commercial bees to their wild cousins.
The model predicted a relatively slow build-up of infection in nearby wild bumblebee populations over weeks or months culminating in a burst of transmission generating an epidemic wave that could affect nearly all of wild bees exposed.
The model also predicted a drop-off in infection rates as you get further from the greenhouses.
GREENHOUSE BUMBLEBEE PARASITES
The researchers then sampled wild bumblebee populations around the greenhouses, catching bees in butterfly nets, holding them in vials and taking them back to a laboratory to screen for pathogens, including testing their feces.
The patterns that had been predicted by their mathematical model were borne out by studying the wild bees, they said.
Most of the parasites in the wild bumblebees were found to be at normal levels except for one intestinal parasite known as Crithidia bombi that is common in commercial bee colonies but typically absent in wild bumblebees.
The researchers found that up to half of wild bumblebees near the greenhouses were infected with this parasite.
"All of the different species of bumblebees that we sampled around greenhouses showed the same pattern: really high levels of infection near greenhouses and then declining levels of infection as you moved out," said Michael Otterstatter of the University of Toronto, one of the researchers.
"It was quite obvious that this was coming from the greenhouses and it was a general adverse effect on the bumblebees," Otterstatter added in a telephone interview.
He said the parasite weakens and often kills bees. The "spillover" of disease from commercial colonies may be a factor in the decline of bee populations in North America, he added.
There may be people who like centipedes. I have seen people handling tarantulas and scorpions, but never a centipede handler. I would regard such a person with deep suspicion...Now what sort of man or woman or monster would stroke a centipede on its underbelly "And here is my big good centipede." If such a man exists, I say kill him without more ado. He is a traitor to the human race.
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