Could spiders be the key to saving our bees?

A novel bio-pesticide created using spider venom and a plant protein has been found to be safe for honeybees - despite being highly toxic to a number of key insect pest. New research, led by Newcastle University, has tested the insect-specific Hv1a/GNA fusion protein bio-pesticide – a combination of a natural toxin from the venom of an Australian funnel web spider and snowdrop lectin. Feeding acute and chronic doses to honeybees - beyond the levels they would ever experience in the field - the team found it had only a very slight effect on the bees’ survival and no measurable effect at all on their learning and memory. Professor Angharad Gatehouse, one of the supervisors on the project, said: "Our findings suggest that Hv1a/GNA is unlikely to cause any detrimental effects on honeybees. "Previous studies have already shown that it is safe for higher animals, which means it has real potential as a pesticide and offers us a safe alternative to some of those currently on the market." Publishing their findings in the academic journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the authors say the insect-specific compound has huge potential as an environmentally-benign, ‘bee-safe’ bio-pesticide and an alternative to the chemical neonicotinoid pesticides which have been linked to declines in pollinator populations. Honeybees perform sophisticated behaviours while foraging that require them to learn and remember floral traits associated with food. Disruption to this important function has profound implications for honeybee colony survival, because bees that cannot learn will not be able to find food and return to their hives.

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