Improvement and use of laboratory methods for toxicological assessments on eusocial bees

• Ano de defesa: 2015
• Autor(a) principal: Tomé, Hudson Vaner Ventura
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa
• Palavras-chave em Português: Abelhas - Criação; Apis mellifera; Melipona quadrifasciata; Pesticida - Toxicologia; Entomologia Agrícola
• Link de acesso: http://www.locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/6794

The importance of bees for pollination is unquestionable. Nevertheless, populations of these organisms have suffered considerable reductions in the world by several factors including the use of pesticides. Eusocial bees usually live in nests, where part of the post-embryonic development occurs in closed combs, what makes difficult the study of bee development. Therefore, to study the impact of these pesticides without interference from environmental factors, the rearing of these organisms under controlled conditions in laboratory is necessary whereas part of pesticide exposure occurs via larval feeding in natural conditions. In this sense, the improvement of rearing methods can contribute to the understanding of how pesticides affect morphophysiological and molecular processes in bees by exposure of larvae to these compounds. This work aimed to develop and/or improve in vitro bee rearing techniques and perform toxicological tests to assess brain and behavioral plasticity in stingless bees. In addition, disorders caused by pesticides in stingless bees and honeybees were also studied. In general, it can be concluded that: 1) the rearing of stingless M. quadrifasciata laboratory de reased de elop e t of so e ees’ rai regio s compared with bees kept in natural conditions; 2) the synthetic insecticide imidacloprid and bio-insecticide spinosad are highly toxic to stingless M. quadrifasciata and also promote sublethal effects on workers of this species; 3) the mortality of Apis mellifera reared in vitro can be greatly reduced by using procedures described in the present study and 4) all pesticides tested caused mortality and sublethal effects (reductions in body weight, changes in gene activity associated with detoxification, developmental disorders and structures of the antennas) in honey bees after exposure during the larval stage to realistic field pesticide concentrations.