>I am assuming that someone misunderstood the methods here.  They state
that the bees were fed 10µl of the test solution (containing the toxin)
after 2 hr. starvation during the acute trials.  When they had consumed
this amount, they were given a 50% sucrose solution ad libitum….that means
“continuously”.

Actually means "as much as they want to eat."  I don't think that anyone
misunderstood the methods.

> I don’t think they were starved if this protocol was followed because
they had continuous access to sucrose

Christina, I'm not so much interested in what you think, but rather what
actually occurred.  I don't know how many incubator trials you have run
with bees, but in both my experience, and with that of a number of other
researchers, caged bees in incubators typically consume something in the
range of 50-100 microliters of 1:1 sucrose syrup per day per bee.  See
Cresswell 2013 for typical syrup consumption with IMI treated syrup--about
50 mg/bee/day.  Since 1:1 syrup has a density of 1.2g/mL, that would be 42
microliters of syrup per day.

Suchail measured the amount of syrup consumed in her chronic toxicity
trials, and it averaged 12 microliters per day--about a quarter of what it
takes to sustain a bee.  For whatever reason, the bees appeared, despite
Suchail's best intentions, to have starved themselves (maybe they didn't
like her cooking).

>
> >So this study doesn’t show bees were starved, IMO.


Christina, I dearly love to hear your opinions, as I do those of Bob.  But
what really gets my pulse going are opinions substantiated by carefully
reviewing the facts (or by doing the math).  The fact is that Suchail's
bees did not, for whatever reason, get enough calories to stay alive.  Thus
the identical mortality curves for all seven chemicals tested, despite the
fact that their toxicity as measured by others varies by orders of
magnitude.

Christina, I'm not saying that IMI is harmless, but Suchail's findings were
based upon an experimental error, which is why no other researcher has ever
been able to replicate them.  That should be a red flag to you!

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