> The preference of the bees... for solutions containing IMD or TMX probably
arises from the pharmacological action of these compounds on nicotinic
acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in the bees' brains.

If this were the case, and the bees were (I'll go ahead and say it)
"addicted to the nicotine", then they would be expected to show the usual
reactions of preference for the tainted syrup.
The authors clearly said that the bees showed no such preference reaction.

So, to repeat, the bees showed no sign of **preferring** the neonic-tainted
syrup, and they consumed less of the tainted syrup, but somehow still chose
the tainted syrup over the pure syrup.
This does not seem to be plausibly explained away by offering up a very
rapid "addiction" scenario.
In other studies, bees conditioned to prefer something consistently showed
the usual signs of preference.

Also, prior studies on nicotine itself (which also trigger nAChRs) have
shown that nicotine itself tends to be a repellent.
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2008/August/28080801.asp
http://tinyurl.com/ohpaart

To me, this seems to be another lab-bench anomaly than will not be
reproducible with feeders and colonies of free-flying bees.


 

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