Honey bees cannot sense harmful concentrations of metal pollutants in food

Abstract

Whether animals can actively avoid food contaminated with harmful compounds through taste is key to understand their ecotoxicological risks. Here, we investigated the ability of honey bees to perceive and avoid food resources contaminated with common metal pollutants known to impair their cognition at low concentrations (lead, zinc and arsenic). In behavioural assays, bees did not discriminate food contaminated with field-realistic concentrations of these metals. Bees only reduced their food consumption and displayed aversive behaviours at very high, unrealistic concentrations of lead and zinc that they perceived through their antennae and proboscis. Electrophysiological analyses confirmed that high concentrations of the three metals in sucrose solution induced a reduced neural response to sucrose in their antennae. Our results thus show that honey bees can avoid metal pollutants in their food, but only at very high concentrations above regulatory levels. Their inability to detect lower, yet harmful, concentrations in a field-realistic range suggests that metal pollution is a major threat for pollinators.