A new study finds that a commonly used insecticide kills much of the sperm created by male drone honey bees, one reason why the bees are dwindling.
The class of insecticide called neonicotinoids didn't kill the drones. But bees that ate treated pollen produced 39 percent less live sperm than those that didn't, according to a controlled experiment by Swiss researchers published Wednesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
It essentially acted as an accidental contraceptive on the drones, whose main job is to mate with the queen—but not one that prevented complete reproduction, just making it tougher, said Lars Straub, lead author of the study and a doctoral student and researcher at the University of Bern. Drones, which are the product of unfertilized eggs, don't gather nectar or pollen and don't sting; they die after mating.
Both the drones that ate insecticide-treated pollen and those not exposed to the chemicals produced about the same amount of sperm. The difference was clear when the researchers put the sperm under the microscope: The bee that didn't have pesticide in its pollen produced on average 1.98 million living sperm, the one with neonicotinoids in its food about 1.2 million.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday July 29 2016, @04:56AM
Used to be Bull sperm collector. Now it's bee sperm collector.
Title stolen from http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-im-glad-i-dont-do, [sciencemag.org] well worth reading. Also read http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-with. [sciencemag.org]
Dr Lowe is a helluva writer. I've got 2 years college chemistry but that was 35+ years ago and I can't follow any of his semi-technical stuff. But damn, the man can write.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Saturday July 30 2016, @02:39PM
Used to be Bull sperm collector. Now it's bee sperm collector.
It makes you wonder what this world has bee-cum.