Andony Melathopoulos

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at Oregon State University

Mason bees, subgenus Osmia Panzer (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), are economically and ecologically significant pollinators. In eastern North America, the rapid spread of 2 non-native species from Asia, Osmia cornifrons Radoszkowski and Osmia taurus Smith, has coincided with declines in native Osmia populations, raising concern about the effects of fu...

Mason bees, subgenus Osmia Panzer (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), are economically and ecologically significant pollinators. In eastern North America, the rapid spread of two non-native species from Asia, O. cornifrons Radoszkowski and O. taurus Smith, has coincided with declines in native Osmia populations, raising concern about the effects of furthe...

BACKGROUND Residues of pesticides on crops can result in mortality to foraging bees. The likelihood of mortality can be mitigated by applying pesticides in the evening so that their residues dissipate by the following morning when bees resume foraging. The dissipation rates of different pesticides, or their residual toxicity, is captured in a publi...

The Oregon Bee Atlas is a new volunteer-led effort to characterize the bee fauna of Oregon State by collecting, preparing and databasing specimens of wild bee species and their plant host records. In 2019 volunteers submitted 25,022 bee specimens across all Oregon counties, representing 224 unique bee species and 45 unique bee genera. Specimens wer...

Habitat for pollinators is declining worldwide, threatening the health of both wild and agricultural ecosystems. Photovoltaic solar energy installation is booming, frequently near agricultural lands, where the land underneath ground-mounted photovoltaic panels is traditionally unused. Some solar developers and agriculturalists in the United States...

The Oregon Bee Atlas is a new volunteer-led effort to characterize the bee fauna of Oregon State by collecting, preparing, and databasing native bee species and capturing plant host records. In 2018, volunteers collected 11,044 bee specimens across 33 Oregon counties, representing 179 unique bee species, and 32 unique bee genera. Specimens were col...

North America has more than 4000 bee species, yet we have little information on the health, distribution, and population trends of most of these species. In the United States, what information is available is distributed across multiple institutions, and efforts to track bee populations are largely uncoordinated on a national scale. An overarching...

Pesticide exposures can have detrimental impacts on bee pollinators, ranging from immediate mortality to sub-lethal impacts. Flupyradifurone is the active ingredient in Sivanto™ and sulfoxaflor is the active ingredient in Transform®. They are both relatively new insecticides developed with an intent to reduce negative effects on bees, when applied...

BACKGROUND Teaching pesticide applicators how to determine a product's toxicity to honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) by understanding the label is a way to reduce honey bee exposure to pesticides. Applicators are currently taught how to interpret labels that follow the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) recommendations for how t...

Insect pollination of flowers should change the within-season allocation of resources in plants. But the nature of this life-history response, particularly regarding allocation to roots, photosynthetic structures, and flowers, is empirically unresolved. This study uses a greenhouse experiment to investigate the effect of insect pollination on the r...

Social organisms combat pathogens through individual innate immune responses or through social immunity-allobehaviours that limit pathogen transmission within groups. While we have a relatively detailed understanding of the genetics and evolution of the innate immunity in animals, we know little about social immunity. Addressing this knowledge gap...

Social organisms combat pathogens through individual innate immune responses or through social immunity—behaviors among individuals that limit pathogen transmission within groups. Although we have a relatively detailed understanding of the genetics and evolution of the innate immune system of animals, we know little about social immunity. Addressin...

The relationship between pesticides and pollinators, while attracting no shortage of attention from scientists, regulators, and the public, has proven resistant to scientific synthesis and fractious in matters of policy and public opinion. This is in part because the issue has been approached in a compartmentalized and intradisciplinary way, such t...

Hedgerows, flowering strips, and natural areas that are adjacent to agricultural land have been shown to benefit crop production, via the provision of insect pollinators that pollinate crops. However, we do not yet know the extent to which bee habitat in the form of urban gardens might contribute to pollination services in surrounding crops. We exp...

In looking toward the past, Anthropocenarians recognize how thoroughly past and future human-environment relations are intertwined with one another. Anthropocenarians understand the present moment of the Great Acceleration—the spike in human activity and its impact on Earth system processes following WWII—in light of past human-environment dynamics...

We present a novel way to select for highly polygenic traits. For millennia, humans have used observable phenotypes to selectively breed stronger or more productive livestock and crops. Selection on genotype, using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genome profiling, is also now applied broadly in livestock breeding programs; however, selec...

We examined whether alfalfa leafcutting bees (ALCB, Megachille rotundata) experienced a higher incidence of seven viruses commonly found honey bees (Apis mellifera) when placed alongside honey bees for hybrid canola seed pollination. Although two viruses – sacbrood virus (SBV) and deformed wing virus (DWV) – were detected in ALCB adults, their pres...

Over the past decade in North America and Europe, winter losses of honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies have increased dramatically. Scientific consensus attributes these losses to multifactorial causes including altered parasite and pathogen profiles, lack of proper nutrition due to agricultural monocultures, exposure to pesticides, management...

Pollination is frequently identified as an important ecosystem service to agricultural production. In contrast, ecosystem disservices are rarely considered. This study explores pollinator service versus disservice in lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) production. This crop is highly managed, requires insect pollination, and has a relativel...

We present a novel way to select for highly polygenic traits. For millennia, humans have used observable phenotypes to selectively breed stronger or more productive livestock and crops. Selection on genotype, using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and quantitative trait loci (QTLs), is also now applied broadly in livestock breeding programs;...

The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) is a critical component of human agriculture through its pollination activities. For years, beekeepers have controlled deadly pathogens such as Paenibacillus larvae, Nosema spp. and Varroa destructor with antibiotics and pesticides but widespread chemical resistance is appearing and most beekeepers would pr...

Climate Change, Marxian Critical Theory, Social Movements

Critical Marxian Theory, Climate Change, Social Movements

While it is clear that the Holocene/Anthropocene transition marks the unprecedented transformation of human societies, scholars have not been able to account for what this transition entails, how it could give rise to our current ecological predicament, and how we might plausibly move beyond it. Without such an understanding, we are left with an in...

Current national and global scale monetary valuation of pollination services do not accurately estimate the contribution of wild pollinators to agricultural production. First, ecosystem (wild) pollination services remain largely bundled with those of managed pollinators. This problem is compounded by the fact that the dependency of crops on pollina...

This chapter highlights the complex interrelationship between global environmental problems and modern forms of social organization by discussing three examples: (1) the Great London Smog (1952); (2) Southeast Asian Haze (2013); and (3) sulfur in the stratosphere (1815 and the future). In doing so, we illustrate the ways in which seemingly objectiv...

The conclusion specifies the meaning of freedom in the Anthropocene against the background of Chapters 1–3. We then discuss the implications of our book for contemporary environmental politics. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the significance of critical theory in helping us comprehend our current ecological predicament.

This chapter situates Lukács’ critique of reification (1923) in relation to the emergence of the Great Acceleration. We develop Lukács’ critique through the issue of the increasing rationalization of industrial and administrative work in the early twentieth century. In doing so, we show how Lukács is able to relocate the continued relevance of Marx...

This chapter situates Adornos critique of identity thinking (1966) in relation to the development of the Great Acceleration. We first establish the theoretical context of Adorno’s critique of identity thinking with specific focus on his philosophy of history, concept of mediation, and the ways in which the shift toward a specifically negative diale...

This chapter situates Moishe Postone’s critique of traditional Marxism in relation to the present moment of the Great Acceleration. We engage a close reading of Postone’s reinterpretation of Marx’s mature theory of capital with specific focus on the linkage between economic growth and ecological degradation, and how this linkage is necessarily conn...

This chapter summarizes the Anthropocene periodization, as proposed by Paul Crutzen and his colleagues. After reviewing the literature, we advance the proposition that the Anthropocene is unable to address the problem of freedom implicated in the environment-society problematic—a seemingly paradoxical process wherein environmental degradation incre...

We investigated mechanisms of social immunity in Apis mellifera. A. mellifera plays a crucial role in Agriculture as a pollinator of a variety of fruits and crops –the estimated contribution of honey bees to Canadian agriculture exceeds $2 billion. Honey bee pathogens trigger individual and colony level immune responses that vary between population...

Current approaches to determining the value of insect pollinators to crop yield assume that plants are primarily pollen limited. This is particularly relevant in a crop such as lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium, where no fruit will set without insect-mediated cross-pollination. However, such valuations usually ignore other factors that are...

The microsporidia parasite Nosema contributes to the steep global decline of honey bees that are critical pollinators of food crops. There are two species of Nosema that have been found to infect honey bees, Nosema apis and N. ceranae. Genome sequencing of N. apis and comparative genome analysis with N. ceranae, a fully sequenced microsporidia spec...

Background Disease is a major factor driving the evolution of many organisms. In honey bees, selection for social behavioral responses is the primary adaptive process facilitating disease resistance. One such process, hygienic behavior, enables bees to resist multiple diseases, including the damaging parasitic mite Varroa destructor. The genetic el...

Spreadsheet of five pages for larval dataset. Page 1, P values and protein annotation. For all proteins identified and quantitated the resultant P value from the correlation analysis with each trait and refseq annotation. Page 2, T statistic for each correlation provides a standardized value for the rate of change for each protein against per unit...

Spreadsheet of five pages for antenna dataset. Page 1, P values and protein annotation. For each protein identified the resultant P value from the correlation analysis with each trait and refseq annotation is provided. Page 2, T statistic for each correlation provides a standardized value for the rate of change for each protein against per unit of...

Spreadsheet of five pages for processed antenna LC-MS data. Page 1 gives the experimental design designating used to generate LC-MS datasets. Each block is shown with colony numbers and the output file name generated for each block. Pages 2 to 4 are examples of the output from LC-MS and protein identification and quantitification result for each pe...

Spreadsheet of five pages for processed larval LC-MS data. Page 1 gives the experimental design designating used to generate LC-MS datasets. Each block is shown with colony numbers and the output file name generated for each block. Pages 2 to 4 are examples of the output from LC-MS and protein identification and quantitification result for each pep...

Gains in hygienic behaviour based on maternal selection of queens were evaluated among four commercial beekeeping operations in northern Alberta, Canada over four generations. While the proportion of breeding colonies expressing the trait increased with each subsequent generation, levels of hygienic behaviour among progeny remained relatively uncha...

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are complex eusocial insects that play a critical role in human agriculture and food production. In response to a wide range of pathogens that affect honey bees, such as the parasitic mite Varroa destructor, the bacteria P. larvae, fungus and viruses, these insects have evolved a variety of individual and colony-level me...

Our goal was to evaluate methods for disinfecting Nosema ceranae-contaminated combs. One hundred ninety two frames containing honey combs were sprayed with an aqueous suspension of N. ceranae, so that each colony received a dose of 4.5 108 spores. Inoculated brood chambers were allocated to five groups(n=12): 1. Irradiation (10 kGy electron beam ra...

Though the existence of resistance traits to American foulbrood disease (AFB) has been known since the 1930s, their inter-correlation, heritability and contribution to overall colony-level resistance remains poorly understood. We compared the distribution of AFB resistance traits within a breeding population assembled from queens derived from eight...

Spreadsheet containing the randomized incomplete block design (RIBD). Columns show how each colony (4–6) from different populations (1–3) is distributed across 58 blocks using a triplex experimental design afforded by the use of the triplex dimethylation labeling strategy. (0.02 MB XLS)

Spreadsheet containing the raw quantitative ratios observed for each protein (columns) identified in the 58 blocks (three colonies per block) analyzed. The top row indicates the bee colonies in each block. (1.94 MB XLS)

Expression spreadsheet of quantified midgut proteins, consisting of column A: the Honey bee gene identifier accession number from the NCBI Genbank database, column B: the Drosophila refseq accession number from the fly NCBI reference sequence database, column C: the Flybase accession number, column D: the K code from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes...

Complete gene enrichment spreadsheet for all analysis performed and shown in the results section. Each sheet has self explanatory column headers, sheet 1 ‘Table 1’ is the full results of the data summarized in Table 1. Sheet 2 ‘Figure 3’ is the enrichment results based on the similarity matrix present in Figure 3. Sheet 3 ‘Figure 4’ is the enrichme...

Honey bees are complex eusocial insects that provide a critical contribution to human agricultural food production. Their natural migration has selected for traits that increase fitness within geographical areas, but in parallel their domestication has selected for traits that enhance productivity and survival under local conditions. Elucidating th...

There is a major paradox in our understanding of honey bee immunity: the high population density in a bee colony implies a high rate of disease transmission among individuals, yet bees are predicted to express only two-thirds as many immunity genes as solitary insects, e.g., mosquito or fruit fly. This suggests that the immune response in bees is s...

This file contains the list of quantified peptides and their relative expression values.

This file contains the list of proteins discussed in the paper with direct mention of their known or putative function, and the evidence or resource for this information.

This file contains the list of proteins considered identified by mass spectrometry-based sequencing and the peptide sequences of each protein. Protein accession numbers preceded by "999" are proteins that have been falsely discovered by matches reversed peptide sequences.

This file contains the list of proteins, their median averaged values based on peptide relative expression.

Nosema ceranae is a highly adapted parasitic fungus that infects Apis mellifera and has been associated with the depopulation and death of colonies in Europe and North America. A large-scale field experiment was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of fumagillin against N. ceranae during the spring, and to examine residual deposition of fumagil...

Shaking is a nonantibiotic management technique for the bacterial disease American foulbrood (AFB) (Paenibacillus larvae sensu Genersch et al.), in which infected nesting comb is destroyed and the adult honey bees, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), are transferred onto uncontaminated nesting material. We hypothesized that colonies shaken ont...

As a result of the application of tylosin to honey bee colonies for the control of American foulbrood disease, antibiotic residues may exist in honey destined for human consumption. It has been recognized that the parent compound, tylosin A, degrades in acidic media such as honey to yield the antimicrobially active degradation product, desmycosin....

American foulbrood (Paenibacillus larvae subspecies larvae) and chalkbrood (Ascosphaera apis) disease in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) can be initiated and perpetuated through spore contaminated comb and pollen. High velocity electron-beam radiation (HVER) is an alternative to gamma radiation for decontaminating pollen and comb containing bee path...

API LIFE VAR® and Apiguard™ were evaluated for their ability to control Varroa mites and for safety to bees following fall treatment of full-sized colonies in two different apiaries in British Columbia, Canada. Colonies treated with API LIFE VAR or Apiguard provided comparable Varroa control to that observed among colonies treated with fluvalinate...

Neem oil, neem extract (neem-aza), and canola oil were evaluated for the management of the honey bee mite parasites Varroa jacobsoni (Oudemans) and Acarapis woodi (Rennie) in field experiments. Spraying neem oil on bees was more effective at controlling V. jacobsoni than feeding oil in a sucrose-based matrix (patty), feeding neem-aza in syrup, or s...

The botanical oils neem, thymol, and canola were examined for control of parasitic mites (Varroa jacobsoni and Acarapis woodi) in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. Neem oil spray (5% solution) killed 90 ± 6% of varroa mites, three times more than died in the untreated group. Thymol-oil spray (4.8g thymol/L in 20% canola oil solution), thymol in...

A laboratory bioassay was developed to evaluate miticides to control Varroa jacobsoni (Oudemans), an important parasite of the honey bee, Apis mellifera L. Bees and mites were exposed to applications of essential oil constituents in petri dishes (60 by 20 mm). The registered mite control agents tau-fluvalinate (Apistan) and formic acid also were ev...

Laboratory bioassays were conducted to evaluate neem oil and neem extract for the management of key honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) pests. Neem pesticides inhibited the growth of Paenibacillus larvae (Ash, Priest & Collins) in vitro but had no effect on the growth of Ascophaera apis (Olive & Spiltoir). Azadirachtin-rich extract (neem-aza) was 10 time...

Adding queen mandibular pheromone into honey bee colonies earlier than 24 h after queen loss resulted in an inhibition of queen-rearing, but not when added after 4 days. The number of queen cells initiated in each treatment decreased with the addition of the pheromone, although there were no effects on the number of queen cells torn down following...

A study of 19 commercial beekeepers was conducted in the Province of Manitoba, Canada. Levels of American foulbrood disease (AFB) were established from these operations by government inspections in the spring of 2002-2004, at which time samples of adult workers were collected from the brood nests of a subset of the colonies. Beekeepers provided rep...