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Honey is a widely consumed natural product, and its entomological origin can significantly influence its market value. Therefore, traceability of the entomological origin of honey should also be considered in honey quality control protocols. Although several methods exist, such as physicochemical characterization and bioactivity profiling of honey of different entomological origins, the most promising three methods for entomological authentication of honey include protein-based identification, chemical profiling, and a DNA-based method. All of these methods can be applied for reliable identification of the entomological origin of honey. However, as the honey is a complex matrix, the inconsistency of the results obtained by these methods is a pragmatic challenge, and therefore, the use of each method in all the cases is questionable. Most of these methodologies can be used for authentication of newly harvested honey and it is worth understanding the possibility of using these methods for authentication of relatively old samples. Most probably, using DNA-based methods targeting small fragments of DNA can provide the best result in old samples, however, the species-specific primers targeting short fragments are limited and not available for all species. Therefore, using universal primers in combination with a DNA metabarcoding approach can be a good solution that requires further investigation. This present article describes the applications of different methods, their pros, and their cons to identify honey based on entomological origin.

Carbohydrates are vital for honey bee energy, fitness, and survival, influencing colony dynamics and resilience. This study examined the effects of various carbohydrate sources on honeybee longevity, hypopharyngeal gland size, gene expression, and gut microbiome composition. Newly emerged bees were fed white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup (CS), maltose, acacia honey, chestnut honey, and oligosaccharide ad libitum. Bees fed CS showed the highest longevity, followed by acacia honey and white sugar, while oligosaccharide-fed bees had the lowest longevity. CS-fed bees also exhibited larger hypopharyngeal glands, correlating with improved survival. Gene expression analysis revealed upregulation of Ilp2 and Vg and downregulation of Ilp1 in 14-day-old bees fed with CS which may be linked to enhanced longevity. Gut microbiome analysis showed the higher composition of Frischella in honey fed treatment groups and Bartonella in processed carbohydrates treated groups, potentially compensating for dietary amino acid deficiencies. However, the absence of core symbionts like Snodgrassella in CS-fed bees may weaken immunity and heighten disease susceptibility. These findings suggest starch-derived corn syrup as a promising carbohydrate source under laboratory conditions, however, long-term colony-level studies are essential to fully understand its benefits and potential risks. This research provides valuable insights for honey bee management and conservation strategies.

Honey DNA metabarcoding provides information of floral sources of honey and foraging plant preferences of honey bees. We evaluated the floral composition of honey from two different species of honey bees, Apis cerana honey (ACH) and A. mellifera honey (AMH) in a mixed apiary located in a semi-forest environment to understand the floral preference and level of interspecific competition on floral resource. Three honey samples were collected from different hives of each species in mid-August. In total, 56 plant taxa were identified across the honey samples and among them, 38 taxonomic units were found in ACH compared with a total of 33 in AMH. The number of major plants (> 1% of reads) in honey samples was 9 and 11 in ACH and AMH respectively indicating the higher diversity of plant taxa in AMH. 23 taxonomic units were found exclusively in ACH, 18 taxonomic units were found only in AMH and 15 taxonomic units were shared between ACH and AMH indicating that 73% of the taxonomic units were present only in honey originated from one of the honeybee species. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the shared major plants revealed the division of floral resource between these co-existing honey bee species pointing to a low level of interspecific competition between these two important pollinators.

The bumblebee, Bombus ignitus (Hymenoptera, Apidae), plays a vital role in pollination in Northeast Asia, including Korea, China, Japan, and Far East Russia. Understanding the genetic makeup of the population can aid in its conservation. This study explores the DNA barcode region of cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI) of B. ignitus in commercial populations from Korea and Japan. The results reveal low intraspecific genetic diversity among commercially reared populations, with a maximum sequence divergence of 0.3%. Analysis of a 458-bp region of the COI gene, including 384 previously reported sequences, identified 20 haplotypes with the highest sequence divergence of 2.01% in East Asia. Commercial populations show a genetic similarity primarily with the Japanese population. Cross-mating with native populations could result in competition and genetic contamination, leading to reduced fitness and sensitivity to future environmental conditions. Morphological similarities make monitoring of such effects challenging. This study provides a basis for further research on population studies, conservation, and commercialization of local populations of B. ignitus for better pollination services while minimizing risks of reducing genetic diversity and increasing competition between native and introduced populations.

Honey is a widely used natural product and the price of honey from Apis cerana (ACH) and A. dorsata (ADH) is several times more expensive than the one from A. mellifera (AMH), thus there are increasing fraud issues reported in the market by mislabeling or mixing honeys with different entomological origins. In this study, three species-specific primers, targeting the NADH dehydrogenase 2 (ND2) region of honeybee mitochondrial DNA, were designed and tested to distinguish the entomological origin of ACH, ADH, and AMH. Molecular analysis showed that each primer set can specifically detect the ND2 region from the targeted honeybee DNA, but not from the others. The amplicon size for A. cerana, A. dorsata and A. mellifera were 224, 302, and 377 bp, respectively. Importantly, each primer set also specifically produced amplicons with expected size from the DNA prepared from honey samples with different entomological origins. The PCR adulteration test allowed detection of 1% of AMH in the mixture with either ACH or ADH. Furthermore, real-time PCR and melting curve analysis indicated the possible discrimination of origin of honey samples. Therefore, we provide the newly developed PCR-based method that can be used to determine the entomological origin of the three kinds of honey.

Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are considered highly significant economic insects. It is a source of valuable food and medicinal products such as honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, bee brood, and beeswax, which possess excellent nutritional and pharmacological properties. Nevertheless, honey bee health and productivity were often challenged by various environmental factors. Therefore, bee colony management is of the utmost importance. In this light, bee supplements and gut microbiota are crucial to ensure that bees receive sufficient nutritional value to maintain their health and productivity. In this study, we isolate and characterize lactic acid bacteria from the hindgut of the worker bee. 16S rRNA sequencing revealed that three isolated bacteria were Apilactobacillus kunkeei (AK), Lactiplantibacillus sp. (LP), and Lactobacillus brevis (LB). Three species of lactic acid bacteria were investigated for potential probiotic properties by supplementing 50% (w/w) sucrose syrup in the form of a direct-fed microorganism (DFM). The supplement with DFM had no negative effect on average lifespan. Examination took place of the impact of probiotics on the development of the hypopharyngeal glands (HPGs) in the bee’s head at days 3, 6, and 9 post-treatments. The cage-bees fed by pollen and DFM syrup exhibited acini surface areas ranging from 0.020 to 0.023 mm2. The L. brevis (LB) group exhibited enhanced HPG development, with an average acini size of 0.027 ± 0.007 mm2 at day 6, while the non-treatment control had an average acini size of 0.023 ± 0.006 mm2. The significant size differences were maintained throughout the 9-day period. In addition, the DFM syrup enhanced microbial protein content in the bee head, digestibility, and community complexity compared with the negative control groups. Therefore, the DFM syrup with a potential strain of probiotic may enhance overall honey bee health status.

Honey bees are essential pollinators in global food production, however, their populations are increasingly threatened by insecticides. Protecting bees from these chemical stressors is critical not only for ecosystem stability but also for agricultural sustainability. Natural dietary compounds, such as curcumin (CU) and rosmarinic acid (RA), have demonstrated antioxidant and detoxification-promoting properties in other organisms and may offer a promising approach to enhancing honey bee resilience to pesticide exposure. This study investigates the potential of CU and RA to mitigate pesticide-induced harm in honey bees. In acute toxicity tests, newly emerged bees and foragers were topically exposed to lethal doses of acetamiprid (1.04 µg/bee for newly emerged and 15.3 µg/bee for forager), carbaryl (0.06 µg/bee for newly emerged and 0.51 µg/bee for forager), and flupyradifurone (15.6 µg/bee for newly emerged and 24.1 µg/bee for forager), followed by post-feeding with CU and RA at 50, 100, and 200 ppm for 48h. Additionally, the effects of CU and RA at 100 ppm were tested under chronic oral intoxication through continuous insecticide feeding. CU100 significantly reduced mortality in insecticide-exposed bees, except foragers exposed to acetamiprid, while RA showed variable detoxification effects, with RA100 and RA200 improving survival in carbaryl-exposed bees and RA50 enhancing survival of 0.06 µg/bee for newly emerged bees exposed to flupyradifurone. Chronic toxicity assessments confirmed CU100’s superior protective effect over RA100, especially in carbaryl-exposed groups. Gene expression analysis revealed that CU and RA modulated detoxification related genes, enhancing honey bees' resilience by upregulating key detoxification genes in the head and abdomen. These findings suggest that CU and RA offer potential benefits in reducing insecticide toxicity in honey bees. However, further research is needed to assess their effects across different life stages, environmental conditions, and colony dynamics, as well as to elucidate the pathways involved in detoxification gene regulation. A comprehensive understanding of their mechanisms and ecological implications is essential before considering these compounds for practical applications in pollinator health management.

This study assessed the growth performance of red palm weevil (RPW) (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus: Curculionidae) larvae on a liquid diet of yeast-enriched potato dextrose broth (control) and on diets with added polystyrene and polyurethane. For 15 days of diet exposure, the growth and survival, plastic degradation, and gut microbiota of larvae were examined. RPWs showed higher survival rates under polystyrene and polyurethane treatments than in the control group. Head diameter showed a higher trend under polyurethane treatment than under the other treatments. Treated plastics were partly degraded after a 15-day exposure. Further analysis of plastic residues from frass revealed significant differences in Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), with decreased intensity of characteristic peaks compared to frass from larvae fed in the control. Gut bacterial communities in the gut of RPW larvae showed that plastic feeding did not significantly alter the presence of key microbial taxa, but members of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were higher in the plastic treatment, showing preliminary signs of plastic oxidation and degradation. Overall, these findings provide evidence that ingestion of PS and PU by RPW larvae supports their survival and alters their gut microbiota, possibly due to plastic degradation, paving the way for further research into the interactions between RPWs, their microbiome, and key functional activities, with implications for plastic waste management and recycling.

As the social organism, Polistes wasps build a communal nest using woody fibers with saliva for sustaining brood and adult population throughout the season. Limited information exists regarding the identification specific plant materials employed in wasp nest building. Thus, we firstly tested if the DNA metabarcoding approach utilizing rbcL and trnL molecular markers could identify the plant species quantitatively and qualitatively inform the mixed-origin woody samples. A threshold of 0.01 proportion of reads was applied for rbcL and trnL molecular markers, while this threshold for median proportion was 0.0025. In assessing taxa richness, the median proportion demonstrated superior performance, exhibiting higher taxa detection power, however, rbcL marker outperformed in quantitative analysis. Subsequently, we applied DNA metabarcoding to identify the plant materials from the nests of two Polistes species, P. mandarinus and P. rothneyi. The results showed that higher preference of Quercus and Robinia as the major nest building materials regardless of the surrounding plant communities, by two wasp species. Material diversity was higher for P. rothneyi than P. mandarinus , which may explain the abundance of this species possibly with heightened adaptive capacities in their nesting behavior. This study demonstrated that DNA metabarcoding could identify the complex nest-building plant materials of paper wasps and provide insights into their ecological interactions in the natural ecosystem.

The Western honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) is essential for crop pollination and ecosystem stability and production for beekeepers as well, yet rising colony losses are a major concern. Poor nutrition is a key stressor, prompting beekeepers to supplement carbohydrates and proteins during nectar and pollen shortages. This study was conducted under controlled laboratory cage conditions to evaluate the interaction effects of two carbohydrate sources, regular corn syrup (rich in maltose) and sucrose syrup; and three pollen types (rapeseed, kiwi, and mixed pollen) on honey bee longevity and physiological performance. Bees fed corn syrup lived longer and developed larger hypopharyngeal glands (HPG) than those fed sucrose syrup. Among pollen treatments, mixed pollen produced the most favorable outcomes, including increased survival, larger HPG acini, and higher vitellogenin levels. The combination of corn syrup and mixed pollen (CS–MP) yielded the longest lifespan, and lowest food consumption, indicating improved nutritional efficiency. Gut microbiota composition varied with diet: RP and KP diets showed higher relative abundances of Sondgrassella and Gilliamella compared with MP whereas the mixed pollen diet promoted a higher relative abundance of Lactobacillus . These results demonstrate that optimizing carbohydrate and pollen combinations can significantly enhance honey bee health, longevity, and colony resilience, providing practical insights for nutritional management in apiculture.