Honey Bee Olfactory Conditioning Responses to Spinosad Exposure

Spinosad exposure reduced proboscis extension reflex response by about 25% in honey bees at 20 minutes post-conditioning. This dataset likely contains results from an automated, microcontroller-based device used to assess the effect of two lethal concentrations (LC0.2 and LC20) of spinosad on olfactory learning in groups of twenty worker bees. The data was authored by Gabriele Rondoni and published on figshare under a CC-BY-4.0 license in May 2026.

Use Cases

• Evaluating the impact of sublethal pesticide doses on insect associative learning based on proboscis extension reflex (PER) protocols.
• Benchmarking automated PER conditioning devices against manual methods for behavioral assessment.
• Investigating the neurotoxic effects of natural bioinsecticides like spinosad on honey bee fitness and behavior.
• Developing standardized tools for monitoring biopesticide effects on pollinator health in laboratory and field conditions.

Strengths

• Data was collected using a validated, automated, open-source device designed to standardize key steps of the PER protocol.
• The study evaluated two specific lethal concentrations (LC0.2 and LC20) of spinosad on groups of twenty bees.
• Results show a concrete, quantified effect (about 25% decreased PER response) at a specific time point (20 min after the last conditioning trial).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The data file is a DOCX document (2.5 MB), which may require extraction or conversion for analysis.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Laboratory experiment using an automated, microcontroller-based device for PER conditioning on Apis mellifera ligustica worker bees exposed to spinosad.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 04:30:07; freshness should be verified.