The Effect of Sublethal Doses of Parathion on Honeybee Behaviour. I. Oral Administration and the Communication Dance

Summary

The oral sublethal dose of parathion in honeybees was determined as less than 0–03 μg per bee. Sublethal doses of parathion prevented bees from communicating the direction of a food source to other bees by dancing. The basic form of the dance of poisoned and nonpoisoned bees was similar, except that the angles at which the poisoned bees danced changed in a disjunct step-wise fashion (instead of linearly) with time. No evidence of changes in other behavioural patterns of foraging bees was observed in these tests, but there are suggestions that parathion at this level caused a temporary interference at an integrating centre outside the brain.