Synergistic effects of multiple pesticides on the flight ability of honey bees (Apis cerana F.)

Pesticides cause risks in the environment for Asian honey bees (Apis cerana). Imidacloprid (I), chlorpyrifos (C) and glyphosate (G) are among the most-widely used pesticides in the world. It is not clear on how these pesticides and combination of them affect the flight ability of A. cerana. Here we utilized flight mills to show new results that acute treatment of individual pesticides, such as 0.2 ng/bees imidacloprid (20 L, 10 ng/g), 0.6 ng/bees chlorpyrifos (20 L, 30 ng/g) and 1.2 ng/bees glyphosate (20 L, 60 ng/g), had no effect on the flight ability of bees. However, forager bees showed a significantly decrease in the flying duration and flying distance when oral exposed to two or three these pesticides. This evidence indicated that two or three pesticides can produce synergistic changes in the flight ability and behavior of honeybees. Results showed a light on new understandings of complex effects and potential risks of these three pesticide on bee behavior including homing ability and food-collecting ability. Our results are key information to understand new synergistic potential among pesticide formulations and how they impair bee behavior. Table of Contents Graphic O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=104 SRC="FIGDIR/small/541595v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (23K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@70e24dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1195fb8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@db5ad5org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1287b51_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG