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Illinois IGB

Gallery

Art of Science 08

Bee Larvae
I Will Work Harder

Zeiss Axiozoom V16 Microscope

Julia Fine, William Streyer, Ran Chao and Nathan Beach

Gene Robinson Laboratory

Funded by the United States Department of Defense
Honey bee pollination helps to ensure the availability of many agricultural crops. Food security is threatened by a worldwide decline in honey bee populations due to four main factors: parasites, pathogens, pesticides and poor nutrition. Researchers are learning how to use advanced robotics to rear honey bee larvae in the laboratory, like those seen in the background of this image, to produce new colonies and study how these four factors interact to affect bee health.