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Agriculture
Special Issues
Physiology, Pathology, and Rearing of Bees
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Physiology, Pathology, and Rearing of Bees

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Farm Animal Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 August 2026 | Viewed by 1286

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Xiaobo Wu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China
Interests: honeybee biology; honeybee pollination; environmental effects on bee health; high-quality queen rearing; high-quality production of bee products; bee product quality and safety; gut microb of honeybee
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Honeybees provide critical pollination services for natural and agricultural plant communities, contributing to numerous ecological and economic benefits . However, in recent decades, several bee species have endured precipitous population declines, which can be attributed to a complex interplay of factors, including pesticide utilization, quality of reared queen, poorly nutritious food, alterations in land use, climate change, heightened pathogen, and parasite burdens. This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the most recent advances related to physiology, pathology, and rearing of bees and delves into the background and evolution of research aimed at understanding and enhancing honey bee health. Our primary goal is to offer a comprehensive platform for disseminating cutting-edge research which addresses various aspects of honey bee health and the rearing of bees.

In this Special Issue, we consider contributions addressing the latest research progress in bee biology, bee physiology, bee pathology, and bee feeding, as well as the impact of pesticides, climate change, bee diseases and the latest feeding technology on bee physiology, biochemistry characteristics and molecular mechanisms.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The latest research progress in bee biology, bee physiology, and bee feeding;
  • The effects of pesticide stress such as insecticides, fungicides, and other environmental pollutants on the physiology and biochemistry of bees;
  • The impact of climate change such as global warming, rapid temperature rise, and rapid temperature drop on the physiology and biochemistry of bees;
  • Research on bee pathology;
  • The latest feeding technology.

Prof. Dr. Xiaobo Wu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • honeybee
  • biology
  • physiology
  • pathology
  • rearing of bees

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1554 KB  
Article
Differential Effects of Tebucur® 250 EW (a.i. tebuconazole) on Learning and Memory in Bombus terrestris L. Following Single Exposure
by Agnieszka Murawska, Katarzyna Zajfert, Natalia Białecka, Patrycja Kleszczyńska, Krzysztof Latarowski and Paweł Migdał
Agriculture 2026, 16(8), 872; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture16080872 - 15 Apr 2026
Viewed by 411
Abstract
The effects of fungicides on pollinators remain relatively understudied despite their widespread use and high likelihood of environmental exposure. We assessed the effects of a single exposure to the commercial formulation Tebucur® 250 EW (containing tebuconazole as the active ingredient) on learning [...] Read more.
The effects of fungicides on pollinators remain relatively understudied despite their widespread use and high likelihood of environmental exposure. We assessed the effects of a single exposure to the commercial formulation Tebucur® 250 EW (containing tebuconazole as the active ingredient) on learning and memory in Bombus terrestris workers. Using the Free-Moving Proboscis Extension Response (FMPER) paradigm, bees were exposed to two concentrations: 9.4 µg of tebuconazole per mL (group T 1/100) and 94 ng of tebuconazole per mL (group T/10,000) of tebuconazole through either pure sucrose (Method 1) or Tebucur® 250 EW-supplemented sucrose (Method 2) during conditioning. No significant differences between groups were detected during the learning phase (all p > 0.05). In contrast, significant differences emerged during the memory test at the earliest time point (5 min). In Method 1, bees exposed to the higher concentration (treatment group T 1/100) showed significantly lower performance compared to the control group (p < 0.05). In Method 2, the lowest performance was observed in the group exposed to the lower concentration (treatment group T 1/10,000; p < 0.01). No significant differences were detected at later time points (10 and 30 min). These results indicate that a single exposure to Tebucur® 250 EW (active ingredient: tebuconazole, 250 g/L) can affect short-term memory in bumblebees without impairing initial learning performance. Although the observed effects were subtle and time-limited, they may have important implications for foraging efficiency and pollination under natural conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiology, Pathology, and Rearing of Bees)
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12 pages, 1112 KB  
Article
Beeswax-Based Tools for Queen Rearing Without Grafting Larvae for Apis mellifera
by Gao Zhang, Weiyu Yan, Zhijiang Zeng and Xiaobo Wu
Agriculture 2026, 16(7), 758; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture16070758 - 29 Mar 2026
Viewed by 594
Abstract
Queen bees form the core of honeybee colonies for reproduction, and their quality is the most critical factor affecting their reproductive and productive performance. In apicultural production, queen rearing requires beekeepers to perform manual larval grafting. This is strongly limited by the beekeepers’ [...] Read more.
Queen bees form the core of honeybee colonies for reproduction, and their quality is the most critical factor affecting their reproductive and productive performance. In apicultural production, queen rearing requires beekeepers to perform manual larval grafting. This is strongly limited by the beekeepers’ eyesight and technical proficiency and has become a bottleneck restricting the development of modern apiculture. To overcome this long-standing technical challenge, we designed beeswax-based tools for queen rearing without grafting larvae for Apis mellifera. The tools consist of three core components: a single-sided hollow beeswax comb foundation, beeswax larval holders and beeswax queen cells with a hole at the bottom. The holders are paired with the hollows of the beeswax comb foundation and the hole of the beeswax queen cells. Following the construction of the comb by honeybees on the hollow foundation, the queen was confined to lay eggs on the single-sided comb. Subsequently, larval holders containing eggs or larvae were pulled out, assembled with beeswax queen cells, embedded in the buckles of queen-rearing frames, and placed into colonies for queen rearing. In order to verify the feasibility of the tools, a paired comparative experiment was conducted using Apis mellifera, with the tools as the treatment group and manual larval grafting as the control group. We evaluated multiple key indicators, including acceptance rate of queen cells, queen cell length at emergence, emergence rate, weight of newly emerged queen, morphological indices (thorax length/width, forewing width, hindwing length, head width), ovariole number and the relative mRNA expression of four queen development-related genes (Vg, Hex110, Hex70b, Jhamt). No significant differences were observed in queen cell acceptance rate and emergence rate between the two groups. However, compared with the control group, queens reared using the tools exhibited significantly greater queen cell length at emergence, higher emergence weight, superior morphological traits, more ovarioles and significantly upregulated expression of all four assayed genes. In conclusion, the tools can be used to rear high-quality Apis mellifera queens effectively with superior phenotypic and molecular traits compared to conventional grafting, which provides efficient and convenient queen-rearing tools for beekeepers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiology, Pathology, and Rearing of Bees)
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