INRA - News of the INRA Plant Health and Environment Division

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Honeybee's foraging activity. © INRA, Yves Le Conte

News

23 Feb 2018

Stress decreases pollen foraging performance in honeybees

Stressed honeybees have lower pollen foraging performance. The resulting deficit in pollen could have consequences on the colony's nutritional balance and development.

Sous les sensilles olfactives (ovales), visibles au microscope électronique à l’extrémité de l’antenne, se trouvent des neurones qui détectent les odeurs et qui sont sensibles aux insecticides.. © INRA, Claude COLLET

News

28 Sep 2016

Towards the development of an in vitro test to evaluate the toxicity of insecticides to bees

Insecticides are incriminated as being one of the factors responsible for the decline of bee populations. Numerous laboratory and field studies have proved the susceptibility of insect pollinators to some of these substances, even at low levels of exposure. In order to better anticipate the toxicity of plant health products, and to contribute to developing alternative solutions, scientists from the Research Unit on Bees and the Environment (at the PACA INRA Centre) have for several years been carrying out work on the neuronal ion channels of bees.

Bee on Cistus ladanifer. © INRA, Nicolas Morison

News

24 Jul 2014

Floral resources: to each bee his own

Bees use floral resources differently depending on what bee family they belong to, such as honeybees, wild bees or bumblebees. This new discovery was made by researchers from the Bees and the Environment Unit at the INRA PACA centre, in cooperation with the Itsap Institut de l’abeille.