Honey bees can be found all around the world and fulfill key pollination roles within their natural ecosystems, as well as in agriculture. Most species are typically docile, and most interactions between humans and bees are unproblematic, despite their ability to inject a complex venom into their victims as a defensive mechanism. Nevertheless, incidences of bee stings have been on the rise since the accidental release of Africanized bees to Brazil in 1956 and their subsequent spread across the Americas. These bee hybrids are more aggressive and are prone to attack, presenting a significant healthcare burden to the countries they have colonized. To date, treatment of such stings typically focuses on controlling potential allergic reactions, as no specific antivenoms against bee venom currently exist. Researchers have investigated the possibility of developing bee antivenoms, but this has been complicated by the very low immunogenicity of the key bee toxins, which fail to induce a strong antibody response in the immunized animals. However, with current cutting-edge technologies, such as phage display, alongside the rise of monoclonal antibody therapeutics, the development of a recombinant bee antivenom is achievable, and promising results towards this goal have been reported in recent years. Here, current knowledge on the venom biology of Africanized bees and current treatment options against bee envenoming are reviewed. Additionally, recent developments within next-generation bee antivenoms are presented and discussed.

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Bee Updated: Current Knowledge on Bee Venom and Bee Envenoming Therapy

Fil: Rollin, Orianne. Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Sede Andina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecologia y Desarrollo Rural; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2664.13355

Impacts of honeybee density on crop yield: A meta-analysis

Pollinators underpin sustainable livelihoods that link ecosystems, spiritual and cultural values, and customary governance systems with indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) across the world. Biocultural diversity is a shorthand term for this great variety of people–nature interlinkages that have developed over time in specific ecosystems. Biocultural approaches to conservation explicitly build on the conservation practices inherent in sustaining these livelihoods. We used the Conceptual Framework of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services to analyse the biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation by IPLCs globally. The analysis identified biocultural approaches to pollinators across all six elements of the Conceptual Framework, with conservation-related practices occurring in 60 countries, in all continents except Antarctica. Practices of IPLCs that are important for biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation can be grouped into three categories: the practice of valuing diversity and fostering biocultural diversity; landscape management practices; and diversified farming systems. Particular IPLCs may use some or all of these practices. Policies that recognize customary tenure over traditional lands, strengthen indigenous and community-conserved areas, promote heritage listing and support diversified farming systems within a food sovereignty approach are among several identified that strengthen biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation, and thereby deliver mutual benefits for pollinators and people. Pollinators are integral to ecosystem functions and human wellbeing, yet conservation approaches often ignore indigenous and biocultural perspectives and practices. This Analysis uses the IPBES framework to categorize biocultural practices and identify policies to support their roles in pollinator conservation.

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Biocultural approaches to pollinator conservation

Land-use change and habitat loss have profoundly disturbed the resource availability for many organisms in farmlands, including bees. To counteract the resulting decline of bees and to maintain their pollination service to crops, bee pollinator-friendly schemes have been developed. We assessed the most established bee pollinator-friendly schemes which mainly aim at enhancing the availability of floral food resources and, or, nesting sites. We found that the availability of non-floral resources was typically overlooked in these schemes, although more than 30% of bee species worldwide depend on non-floral resources. In this opinion paper, we call for more attention on the role of non-floral resources in such conservation schemes. In fact, at least two of the most species rich Apoidea families, the Apidae and Megachilidae, need non-floral resources for nest building, defence, protection and health. For example, resin is known to improve health and resistance to pests and pathogens in stingless bees and the western honey bee Apis mellifera. Beyond social bees, many solitary bee species, in particularly within the Euglossini, Centridini and Megachilidae, also use resin, leaf pieces, trichome secretions and other materials for the construction and protection of brood cells and the nest. Besides protection, non-floral resources can also provide alternative food resources for bees, e.g. sugary secretions from other insects. Surprisingly little is known on this insect–insect interaction although some studies suggest that honey production by beekeepers can largely depend on this alternative food resource. The apparent knowledge gap on the role of non-floral resources for bees can thus directly concern stakeholders. Interestingly, many non-floral resources are provided by woody vegetation, but most of the bee pollinator-friendly schemes are currently orientated towards enhancing flower availability in field margins and flower strips. We therefore suggest more attention in the protection of trees and hedgerows in conservation, restoration and management schemes to best supporting bee health by providing combined access to nesting, floral and non-floral foraging resources.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10841-019-00206-1.pdf

Beyond flowers: including non-floral resources in bee conservation schemes

Recent biological invasions offer 'natural' laboratories to understand the genetics and ecology of adaptation, hybridization, and range limits. One of the most impressive and well-documented biological invasions of the 20th century began in 1957 when Apis mellifera scutellata honey bees swarmed out of managed experimental colonies in Brazil. This newly-imported subspecies, native to southern and eastern Africa, both hybridized with and out-competed previously-introduced European honey bee subspecies. Populations of scutellata-European hybrid honey bees rapidly expanded and spread across much of the Americas in less than 50 years. We use broad geographic sampling and whole genome sequencing of over 300 bees to map the distribution of scutellata ancestry where the northern and southern invasions have presently stalled, forming replicated hybrid zones with European bee populations in California and Argentina. California is much farther from Brazil, yet these hybrid zones occur at very similar latitudes, consistent with the invasion having reached a climate barrier. At these range limits, we observe genome-wide clines for scutellata ancestry, and parallel clines for wing length that span hundreds of kilometers, supporting a smooth transition from climates favoring scutellata-European hybrid bees to climates where they cannot survive winter. We find no large effect loci maintaining exceptionally steep ancestry transitions. Instead, we find most individual loci have concordant ancestry clines across South America, with a build-up of somewhat steeper clines in regions of the genome with low recombination rates, consistent with many loci of small effect contributing to climate-associated fitness trade-offs. Additionally, we find no substantial reductions in genetic diversity associated with rapid expansions nor complete dropout of scutellata ancestry at any individual loci on either continent, which suggests that the competitive fitness advantage of scutellata ancestry at lower latitudes has a polygenic basis and that scutellata-European hybrid bees maintained large population sizes during their invasion. To test for parallel selection across continents, we develop a null model that accounts for drift in ancestry frequencies during the rapid expansion. We identify several peaks within a larger genomic region where selection has pushed scutellata ancestry to high frequency hundreds of kilometers past the present cline centers in both North and South America and that may underlie high-fitness traits driving the invasion.

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Selection and hybridization shaped the rapid spread of African honey bee ancestry in the Americas.

/pdf/the-world-history-of-beekeeping-and-honey-hunting-h3nk48bslc.pdf

Marleen Boerjan

Papers

The world history of beekeeping and honey hunting [Boekbespreking]