Insecticides are thought to be among the major factors contributing to current declines in bee populations. However, detoxification mechanisms in healthy, unstressed honey bees are poorly characterised.

Bees and other insect pollinators are taking more and more relevance in the public debate. European authorities now recognise the environmental risks that pollinators face and the need for institutional action.

In a favourable agro-ecological and socio-economical context, the development of beekeeping in Laos faces an important strategic choice: the introduction of the exogenous species Apis mellifera or the slow development of the actual beekeeping with endogenous species Apis cerana and Trigona laeviceps.

Microsporidium Nosema ceranae is well known for exerting a negative impact on honey bee health, including down-regulation of immunoregulatory genes.

Our overview mainly focuses on aspects of diet and metabolism in larvae and adults, and on the physiology of digestion.

We examined the consumption rate of protein diets in caged and free-flying honey bees, amino acid composition of diets, and diet effects on gland development.

The bacterial communities of bee bread possibly exhibit beneficial roles for honeybees such as polysaccharide degradation and nitrogen fixing.

Melissococcus plutonius is a pathogenic bacterium affecting immature stages of the western honey bee and leads to European foulbrood disease.

As an agonist of the acetylcholine receptor, it attacks the insect nervous system and is extremely effective against various sucking and mining pests

Inter-colony distance of Apis mellifera significantly affects colony numbers of the parasitic mite Varroa destructor.