Behavior and mortality of Apis mellifera workers feeding on soft drinks in an urban environment.

Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) coexists with humans in urban habitats foraging, mainly, sources containing carbohydrates. The behavior and risks for bees using soft drinks in their diet are poorly studied. The time spent by bee workers visiting soft drink leftovers in plastic cups and its death were evaluated. Bee workers spent more time visiting soft drinks in plastic cups (200 mL) than flowers of Schinus sp. (Anacardiaceae), Anadenanthera sp. (Fabaceae), Vernonia sp. (Asteraceae), Citrus sinensis L. (Rutaceae) and Cissus rhombifolia Vahl (Vitaceae), the five most visited honey plants in the field. Drowning mortality and the bee preference varied with the amount of soft drinks leftovers in cups. We present the first study of behavior and drowning mortality of A. mellifera feeding on leftover soft drink in plastic cups in urban areas, in the Brazilian Cerrado biome. This study may help to understanding the adaptive mechanisms of honeybees to explore habitats dominated by humans and unusual diets.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Brazilian journal of biology = Revista brasleira de biologia

• Publication date

  Unknown publication date

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1590/1519-6984.289658PMID 39969004
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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