ArticlePloS one2022
Acute exposure to sublethal doses of neonicotinoid insecticides increases heat tolerance in honey bees.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Changes in Alternative Splicing are Associated with Insecticide Response and Resistance.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Secondary Compounds in Milkweed Nectar Negatively Impact Thermal Tolerance in Bumble Bees.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Expression of Heat Shock Protein 90 Genes Induced by High Temperature Mediated Sensitivity ofInsects · 2025Article
- Effective adaptation of flight muscles to tebuconazole-induced oxidative stress in honey bees.Heliyon · 2025Article
- Hormetic response to pesticides in diapausing bees.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Extraction and Optical Analysis of the Extracellular Fluid from the Body Segments ofIntegrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Article
- Current Insights into Sublethal Effects of Pesticides on Insects.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Sublethal doses of insecticide reduce thermal tolerance of a stingless bee and are not avoided in a resource choice test.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Colony size buffers interactions between neonicotinoid exposure and cold stress in bumblebees.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Non-optimal ambient temperatures aggravate insecticide toxicity and affect honey bees Apis mellifera L. gene regulation.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Indirect exposure to insect growth disruptors affects honey bee (Apis mellifera) reproductive behaviors and ovarian protein expression.PloS one · 2023Article
- High thermal tolerance in high-elevation species and laboratory-reared colonies of tropical bumble bees.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Neotropical stingless bees display a strong response in cold tolerance with changes in elevation.Conservation physiology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The European honey bee, Apis mellifera L., is the single most valuable managed pollinator in the world. Poor colony health or unusually high colony losses of managed honey bees result from a myriad of stressors, which are more harmful in combination. Climate change is expected to accentuate the effects of these stressors, but the physiological and behavioral responses of honey bees to elevated temperatures while under simultaneous influence of one or more stressors remain largely unknown. Here we test the hypothesis that exposure to acute, sublethal doses of neonicotinoid insecticides reduce thermal tolerance in honey bees. We administered to bees oral doses of imidacloprid and acetamiprid at 1/5, 1/20, and 1/100 of LD50 and measured their heat tolerance 4 h post-feeding, using both dynamic and static protocols. Contrary to our expectations, acute exposure to sublethal doses of both insecticides resulted in higher thermal tolerance and greater survival rates of bees. Bees that ingested the higher doses of insecticides displayed a critical thermal maximum from 2 ˚C to 5 ˚C greater than that of the control group, and 67%-87% reduction in mortality. Our study suggests a resilience of honey bees to high temperatures when other stressors are present, which is consistent with studies in other insects. We discuss the implications of these results and hypothesize that this compensatory effect is likely due to induction of heat shock proteins by the insecticides, which provides temporary protection from elevated temperatures.
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