Bacterial communities associated with honeybee food stores are correlated with land use

Microbial communities, associated with almost all metazoans, can be inherited from the environment. Although the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) gut microbiome is well documented, studies of the gut focus on just a small component of the bee microbiome. Other key areas such as the comb, propolis, honey, and stored pollen (bee bread) are poorly understood. Furthermore, little is known about the relationship between the pollinator microbiome and its environment. Here we present a study of the bee bread microbiome and its relationship with land use. We estimated bacterial community composition using both Illumina MiSeq DNA sequencing and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Illumina was used to gain a deeper understanding of precise species diversity across samples. DGGE was used on a larger number of samples where the costs of MiSeq had become prohibitive and therefore allowed us to study a greater number of bee breads across broader geographical axes. The former demonstrates bee bread comprises, on average, 13 distinct bacterial phyla; Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Alpha‐proteobacteria, Beta‐proteobacteria, and Gamma‐proteobacteria were the five most abundant. The most common genera were Pseudomonas, Arsenophonus, Lactobacillus, Erwinia, and Acinetobacter. DGGE data show bacterial community composition and diversity varied spatially and temporally both within and between hives. Land use data were obtained from the 2007 Countryside Survey. Certain habitats, such as improved grasslands, are associated with low diversity bee breads, meaning that these environments may be poor sources of bee‐associated bacteria. Decreased bee bread bacterial diversity may result in reduced function within hives. Although the dispersal of microbes is ubiquitous, this study has demonstrated landscape‐level effects on microbial community composition

An annotated checklist of Wisconsin sap and short-winged flower beetles (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae, Kateretidae)

A survey of Wisconsin Nitidulidae and Kateretidae yielded 78 species through analysis of literature records, museum and private collections, and three years of field research (2000-2002). Twenty-seven species (35% of the Wisconsin fauna) represent new state records, having never been previously recorded from the state. Wisconsin distribution, along with relevant collecting techniques and natural history information, are summarized. The Wisconsin nitidulid and kateretid faunae are compared to reconstructed and updated faunal lists for Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and south-central Canada. Literature and distributional records suggest at least 11 additional nitidulid species may occur in Wisconsin

Total polyphenols in bee bread (Apis mellifera L.) from hives the Araucanía Region

El pan de abeja es polen almacenado parcialmente fermentado que las obreras de Apis mellifera L. recolectan y lo mezclan con sus propias enzimas digestivas, haciéndolo un alimento sano y nutritivo para ellas debido a las propiedades funcionales. Por esta razón, el objetivo de este estudio fue determinar la concentración de polifenoles presentes en pan de abeja provenientes de dos sectores de la Región de La Araucanía mediante dos métodos de extracción. Para ello se obtuvieron cinco panales con pan de abeja del sector de Pillanlelbún en la comuna de Lautaro y el sector de Pidenco-Codihue comuna de Carahue. El total de compuestos fenólicos se analizó colorimétricamente por medio del método de Folin Ciocalteu en el Laboratorio de Bromatología de la Universidad Católica de Temuco. La mayor concentración de polifenoles se observó en la localidad de Pillanlelbún, tanto para la extracción con metanol como con agua arrojando resultado de 2394 mg 100 g-1 y 689 mg 100 g-1 de pan de abeja base seca, respectivamente, en cambio en el sector de Carahue los resultados fueron de 1972 mg 100 g-1 de pan de abeja base seca extracción con metanol y 605 mg 100 g-1 de pan de abeja base seca extracción con agua. Esta diferencia estaría dada por la composición floral de los pólenes de cada sector, siendo más abundante en polifenoles en el sector de Pillanlelbún.The bee bread stored pollen fermentation is that workers of Apis mellifera L. collected and mixed with their own digestive enzymes, making it a healthy and nutritious food for them due to the functional properties. For this reason, the aim of this study was to determine the concentration of polyphenols present in bee bread from two sectors of the Araucanía Region using two extraction methods. To do this, five combs with bee bread were obtained from the Pillanlelbún sector of the district of Lautaro and from the Pidenco-Codihue sector of the district of Carahue. The total phenolic compounds were subjected to colorimetric analysis using the Folin Ciocalteu method in the Bromatology Laboratory of the Catholic University of Temuco. A greater concentration of polyphenols was observed in the Pillanlelbún sector, for extraction both with methanol and with water, giving a result of2394 mg 100 g-1 and 689 mg 100 g-1 bee bread, dry base, respectively, while in the Carahue sector the results were 1972 mg 100 g-1 bee bread, dry base, for extraction with methanol and 605 mg 100 g-1 bee bread, dry base, for extraction with water. This difference would arise from the composition of the flora from which the pollen, with polyphenols being more abundant in the Pillanlelbún sector

Reporting the Irish Famine in America: Images of Suffering Ireland in the American Press, 1845-1848

This chapter is a study of American newspaper reporting on the Great Irish Famine. The study examines six master narratives that constrained the image of Ireland and the Irish people presented to American readers. Those narrative constraints predisposed Americans to respond with hostility when Irish Famine refugees began to arrive in the United States

Honey bee bacteriome in agricultural and pristine environments

[EN] In order to get new information about the effect that agricultural environments and beekeeping practices have on the microbiota of honey bees and its implications on honey bee health, different samples of the hive (gut, pollen bread, brood, air from inside the colony, microorganisms stuck to the entrance of the hive, etc.) were collected from two apiaries: one located in a pristine island with virtually no inhabitants and not managed in any way, and the other one located in a completely agricultural environment with a commercial management. DNA from this samples was extracted and a fragment of the ribosomal gene 16S rRNA (universal for the detection of prokaryotes) was amplified and sequenced, in order to perform a comparative characterization of the bacteriome in each location. The results obtained in this study provide a better understanding of the effect that agriculture and beekeeping practices have on the bacteriome of different parts of the hive, which may give us new insights into how to keep and improve honey bee health, possibly through the integrated management of honey bee microbial systems

Mushrooms and the wine of Maron

Although the excavators of the sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace recognize that drinking to the point of intoxication was practiced at the Mystery, naively this has not been seen as an element in the initiation scenario. Numerous drinking cups have been found, inscribed as the property of the gods, and the ancient village of Keramidaria (‘Ceramics’) was devoted to the manufacture of amphorae, officially stamped as genuine provenance of Samothrace for the export of the wine distinctive of the Mystery, probably a version of Homer’s potent Maronian wine of the Cyclops. That wine still existed in the Roman Period, and on the testimony of the proconsul assigned to the province, it even required dilution with eight parts water to be drunk safely. At the time of Odysseus, the rate of dilution was twentyfold. Such potent wines achieved their high intoxicating potential from the substances added to the ferment, a fact that has now been confirmed by the discovery of an intact wine cellar from Canaan, dated to the beginning of the second millennium BCE. The myth of the establishment of the Mystery, dated to the generations before the Trojan War, narrates the tale of its founder sailing like a drunken loon upon a wineskin, and similar establishments of the Mystery of the Great Gods depict a Kabeiric dwarfish Odysseus sailing upon an amphora filled with the special potion of the great sorceress Circe. This wine was fortified with a sacred psychoactive mushroom, whose antiquity can be traced back to the wolf sacrament of the Achaemenid Persians, and documented as well in Celtic lore and among the Nordic berserkers, recorded as early as the Emperor Trajan as a rite of the Dacians of Thrace, who are named as the ‘People of the Wolf’ and who carried the banner of Draco into battle, a serpent with the head of a wolf. The serpent is an indication of the wolf’s toxicity, and the fondness of wolves for eating the mushrooms was the basis for the rituals of lycanthropy and the initiated fraternal packs of warriors. In Athens of the Classical Age, the fungal identity of this initiatory sacrament was common knowledge, obscenely parodied on the comic stage. The Etruscans carried this sacrament to the Italian peninsula and it was incorporated into the mythologized history of Rome’s founding by the Trojan Aeneas as the fulfillment of the prophecy of the edible tables that would signal the site for the future city. The cult of the Great Gods involved the widespread phenomenon of the little people that materialized from the sacramental fungus as fairy creatures, using the mushroom as their tables set with dainty morsels that inspired visionary experience and of which it was taboo for the uninitiated to partake

A Declaration of the State of the Colony: Photographic facsimile edition

Edward Waterhouse’s Declaration of the State of the Colony is the Virginia Company\u27s official response to the Powhatan attack on the plantation in the spring of 1622. The attack, often called the “Jamestown Massacre,” cost the lives of 25% of the population of the colony (individually listed by Waterhouse in a harrowing catalog of the dead). It led to massive retaliation by the English. It also significantly changed the ideological basis of the colonial project in Virginia from one based on naïve hopes that Indians would voluntarily subordinate themselves to the English towards an aggressive colonialism of dispossession. Waterhouse’s text also sought to reassure potential English investors and migrants that the attack would prove a boon to the colony. For this reason, he appended to his account a treatise on the Northwest Passage by Henry Briggs, an account of the charitable donations the colony had secured, and a broadside containing information about the supplies needed by colonists. The British Virginia edition of Waterhouse’s Declaration, edited and introduced by Dylan Ruediger, is the most accessible edition of the text available to students and scholars. It is presented here in two formats, a photographic facsimile of this rare text featuring searchable, full color images of the copy held by the Virginia Historical Society (F229 .W32 1622), and a type facsimile that retains original spelling and layout.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/britva/1003/thumbnail.jp

Marry & Burn by Rachel Rose

Review of Rachel Rose\u27s Marry & Burn