Researchers have found that long-term exposure to the neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid can cause bats to forget flight paths and even lose the ability to catch insects. The pesticide can accumulate in the bats as a result of eating tainted insects:
Imidacloprid — a neonicotinoid pesticide that the US Environmental Protection Agency says can be harmful to bees — is a threat to the survival of bats, a research team said. The team, headed by National Taiwan Normal University professor of life sciences Wu Chung-hsin (吳忠信) found that bats feeding on imidacloprid-tainted insects were unable to fly along learned paths and often got lost while hunting. With Formosan leafnosed bats as their experimental subject, the team found that animals treated with a low dose of imidacloprid developed neural apopotosis — a process of programmed cell death — in the brain, Wu said.
Imidacloprid toxicity impairs spatial memory of echolocation bats through neural apoptosis in hippocampal CA1 and medial entorhinal cortex areas. (DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000562) (DX)
A species of bumblebee has been added to the U.S. Endangered Species List. Canada designated the rusty patched bumblebee as endangered in 2012:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated the rusty patched bumblebee an endangered species — the first such designation for a bumblebee and for a bee species in the continental U.S. The protected status, which goes into effect on Feb. 10, includes requirements for federal protections and the development of a recovery plan. It also means that states with habitats for this species are eligible for federal funds.
"Today's Endangered Species listing is the best—and probably last—hope for the recovery of the rusty patched bumble bee," NRDC Senior Attorney Rebecca Riley said in a statement from the Xerces Society, which advocates for invertebrates. "Bumble bees are dying off, vanishing from our farms, gardens, and parks, where they were once found in great numbers." Large parts of the Eastern and Midwestern United States were once crawling with these bees, Bombus affinis, but the bees have suffered a dramatic decline in the last two decades due to habitat loss and degradation, along with pathogens and pesticides.
A UK study (open, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12459) (DX) published in August linked neonicotinoids used on rapeseed crops to the decline of bumblebee species.
Related Stories
European agency concludes controversial 'neonic' pesticides threaten bees
Controversial insecticides known as neonicotinoids pose a danger to wild bees and managed honey bees, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma, Italy, said in a report released today. Bayer, a maker of so-called neonics, disputed EFSA's findings. But the report is likely to give a boost to those pushing for tighter European regulation of the chemicals.
"This report certainly strengthens the case for further restrictions on neonicotinoid use," entomologist Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex in Brighton, U.K., said in a statement. The European Commission last year proposed—but has not yet adopted—extending a partial ban on neonics to all field crops.
Related: Landmark Study: Honeybee Queens Severely Affected by Neonicotinoid Pesticides
Neonicotinoid Can Cause Brain Damage in Bats; Bumblebee Species Added to Endangered List
Extensive Study Concludes Neonicotinoid Pesticides Harm Bees
Lithium Chloride May Help in Fixing Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @04:31AM
rapeseed crops
Uh oh. You're gonna trigger the SJWs with that term! [theguardian.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @05:13AM
Don't tell the Muricans "canola" means "Canada oil" either.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @05:24AM
Your mother complained complained about the name of rapeseed, they renamed it canola in the 70s so she would buy it. It might surprise that moms don't like to cook with rape, but its true.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @05:38AM
I heard canola oil gives Katy Perry the trumps.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:34AM
Canola is a cultivar of rapeseed bred to be low in erucic acid.
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola [wikipedia.org]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Tuesday January 17 2017, @05:35AM
Let me recoup, . . . No, there is too much. Let me sum up. First, urine analysis. Followed by Russian tech and intelligence. Then the Hairyfeet Golden Shower Challenge. And now, batshit crazy, only with out the shit. I detect a trend, an arc of justice that is long, and a descent into madness that follows the Golden Mean into an increasingly tight spiral. And Old Saying from Ancient Greece: "γνῶθι σεαυτόν", which means "know thyself"; but that is not important now. Another is: "Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad." Modern version: "Trump goeth before the fall, with really tiny hands."
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 17 2017, @06:31AM
Just for the sake of being informative, that whole size of the hands relating to the size of the dick thing is absolutely true.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @07:13AM
Mate with that huge prick of yours, you know what women always say: "Ouch."
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 17 2017, @07:39AM
S'okay, there's no way in which a woman advertising my package delivery service to her friends works out badly for me.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @08:11AM
This is one of those times when the difference between "having" and "being" is extremely pertinent. And it is feet, not hands. Buy a pair of shoes that fit, Maudlin Bussindet!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @08:07AM
Yes, Trump is a huge dick!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @02:41AM
OK, but he has small hands.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Snotnose on Tuesday January 17 2017, @08:17AM
If it causes brain damage in republicans it would explain a lot....
God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers. I am not one of them, please make it stop.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:26AM
But what you speculate is both practically and theoretically impossible! Brain-damage Republicans! Ha! As if! Republicans, brains! Do you know why zombies never chase after Republicans? Have you listened to Kellyanne?
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday January 18 2017, @01:16AM
Was shooting for troll, but I guess offtopic works.
God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers. I am not one of them, please make it stop.
(Score: 2) by rleigh on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:26AM
If it can damage the brains of bats, which are mammals just like ourselves, what's the long term effect of its bioaccumulation in the human brain? Makes you wonder.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:51AM
Bees fly, and so do bats. Apart from flying foxes, bats are the only mammals that fly. Humans don't fly. Unless we grow wings, we, like most mammals, will be fine. In the end, aren't flying foxes a nuisance?
a nessage from ChemChina Syngenta: your life, our laboratory
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @08:06AM
Apart from flying foxes, bats are the only mammals that fly.
Um, apart? Really, my dear uneducated AC, what do you think flying foxes are? Actual foxes that fly? Do they have nine tails? No, you ignoramous, flying foxes are bats, bats that feed off of fruit, as in "fruit bats". Not gay at all, bats, but still bats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pteropus [wikipedia.org] Next up for "flying mammals": Flying squirrels? Hey, Squirrel!!!!
[Everyone knows, except Francis, that mammals cannot fly because of the large mammalary glands on the chests of the females that distract the males enough that they cannot maintain the concentration necessary to maintain flight. And, their "sticks" get in the way when visual flight rules apply. So there we have it, it's a simple matter of weight ratios, just like a swallow carrying a coconut.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @08:49AM
Right, flying squirrels, that's what I meant.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday January 17 2017, @03:45PM
I am myself worried for you, meat^Wnicotinoidbags.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday January 17 2017, @04:04PM
Nothing to see here, move along citizen...
It seems that of the promises made by the producers of neonics, the only one it has lived up to is "it kills things".