> How many studies need doing that all show harm, 
> before it becomes apparent that there is enough 
> evidence to be concerned?

If you have all those studies at hand, please send them along, and I will
plot the doses administered in each study on graphs for via oral and contact
methods for adult, larvae, and pupae stages.  Better yet, assign it to a
student. 

"A long list of papers" is not the same as a scatter plot of the doses
administered in each study, and the devil is in the doses.

The consistent pattern to date has been to administer doses far higher than
have ever been detected in the field.  In some cases, the doses have been
"lethal" rather than "sublethal".  The result has been a lot of politics and
advocacy wrapped up in the trappings of science.

Not to be picky, but you only need one study to prove a point.   There are a
number of us among the Bee-L community who make the massive investment of
time and effort required to slog through the papers in this area, like
Diogenes, wandering the noonday streets of Athens, lanterns in hand,
"looking for an honest man".  But I doubt that all the papers you listed
have been discussed here.

To date I have found only one study that both administered low ("field
relevant") doses, had a solid methodology, and had results that were
undeniably and overwhelmingly conclusive.  This study was omitted from your
list:

"Transient Exposure to Low Levels of Insecticide Affects Metabolic
Networksof Honeybee Larvae" in PLOS ONE.
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068191

We discussed it here:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A2=BEE-L;4d065f80.1
307
or
http://tinyurl.com/lktlves
...please note that it takes some reading up on both genetics and statistics
to see how rock-solid the paper is, but even then, one is left with the
question "Does the genetic damage done have a tangible impact on the bees?"


To be blunt, I think we have blamed too much on the pesticides, which keep
getting less and less bee-toxic, and not looked enough at the fungicides,
which keep getting more and more "effective".  Fungicides, bee pollen, and
the impact of pollen on both queen and larvae nutrition are a very
interesting subject, mark my words.

Also, I think it is important to remember that Diogenes was called "Diogenes
the Cynic", but even cynicism was more nuanced and subtle back then than it
has since become.  The bit with the lantern was an early attempt at
"performance art".

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