ArticleScientific reports2015
Bumblebee learning and memory is impaired by chronic exposure to a neonicotinoid pesticide.
Article in Scientific reports, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
75 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Disruption of Antioxidant Defense Systems in Honey Bees and Wild Bees Under Environmental Xenobiotic Pressure.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Acute Exposure to Traces of Chlorantraniliprole Does Not Alter Antipredator Behaviour in Wild Crickets.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Behavioral disruption in honey bees (Apis mellifera) exposed to isolated and combined insecticides.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2026Article
- Bee swimming is adaptive but disrupted by insecticide.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Pesticide and Pathogen Exposure Causes Idiosyncratic Gene Expression Responses Across Four Diverse North American Bumble Bee Species.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Sulfoxaflor Impairs Bumblebee Memory Across Moderate and Extreme Temperatures.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Discovery and biological characterization of a novel mesoionic insecticide fenmezoditiaz.Pest management science · 2025Article
- A risk based pollination network for non-Apis bees demonstrates the importance of understory plant contamination.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The flavonoid rutin protects against imidacloprid-induced osmotic and electric disruptions in Africanized honey bees.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Exposure to an insecticide formulation alters chemosensory orientation, but not floral scent detection, in buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris).Scientific reports · 2024Article
- A novel insecticide impairs bumblebee memory and sucrose responsiveness across high and low nutrition.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Land-use-associated stressors interact to reduce bumblebee health at the individual and colony level.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- A New Approach for Detecting Sublethal Effects of Neonicotinoids on Bumblebees Using Optical Sensor Technology.Insects · 2023Article
- Colony size buffers interactions between neonicotinoid exposure and cold stress in bumblebees.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Gene expression in bumble bee larvae differs qualitatively between high and low concentration imidacloprid exposure levels.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Oral exposure to thiacloprid-based pesticide (Calypso SC480) causes physical poisoning symptoms and impairs the cognitive abilities of bumble bees.BMC ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Article
- Contrasting effects of fungicide and herbicide active ingredients and their formulations on bumblebee learning and behaviour.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Bumblebees are exposed to pesticides applied for crop protection while foraging on treated plants, with increasing evidence suggesting that this sublethal exposure has implications for pollinator declines. The challenges of navigating and learning to manipulate many different flowers underline the critical role learning plays for the foraging success and survival of bees. We assessed the impacts of both acute and chronic exposure to field-realistic levels of a widely applied neonicotinoid insecticide, thiamethoxam, on bumblebee odour learning and memory. Although bees exposed to acute doses showed conditioned responses less frequently than controls, we found no difference in the number of individuals able to learn at field-realistic exposure levels. However, following chronic pesticide exposure, bees exposed to field-realistic levels learnt more slowly and their short-term memory was significantly impaired following exposure to 2.4 ppb pesticide. These results indicate that field-realistic pesticide exposure can have appreciable impacts on learning and memory, with potential implications for essential individual behaviour and colony fitness.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.