Synergistic negative effects between a fungicide and high temperatures on homing behaviours in honey bees

Interactions between environmental stressors may contribute to ongoing pollinator declines, but have not been extensively studied. Here, we examined the interaction between the agricultural fungicide Pristine® (active ingredients: 25.2% boscalid, 12.8% pyraclostrobin) and high temperatures on critical honey bee behaviours. We have previously shown that consumption of field-realistic levels of this fungicide shortens worker lifespan in the field and impairs associative learning performance in a laboratory-based assay. We hypothesized that Pristine® would also impair homing and foraging behaviours in the field, and that an interaction with hot weather would exacerbate this effect. Both field-relevant Pristine® exposure and higher air temperatures reduced the probability of successful return on their own. Together, the two factors synergistically reduced the probability of return and increased the time required for bees to return to the hive. Pristine® did not affect the masses of pollen o..., , Microsoft Excel for .csv files; R for .R files, # Synergistic negative effects between a fungicide and high temperatures on homing behaviours in honey bees

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These experiments measured the effects of the agricultural fungicide Pristine on honey bee navigation and foraging behaviours.

In the navigation experiment, bees were captured from their individual colonies (which had either been exposed to the fungicide or had served as controls), marked with either a queen tag or an RFID tag, and then released 1 km from their hive. Human observers or RFID readers recorded the time each marked individual returned to the hive.

In the foraging experiments, returning foragers from the same colonies were captured at hive entrances. Their foraging success was measured by determining the volume and sugar concentration of their crop contents and the mass of their corbicular pollen loads.

## Description of data and file structure

The navigation data details whether individual bees (either exposed to the fungicide Pris...