• Home
• People
• Publications
• What's New?
• Outreach
• The Teaching Bee
• Pictures
• Contact
• For Lab Members

Welcome to the Nieh Lab

Natural and man-made stressors of social bees

• Evolution of communication

  Selective pressures from competitors and predators has shaped social bee communication. Our lab studies multiple bee groups: honey bees, stingless bees, and bumble bees to learn how this communication works and why it may have evolved. read more »

• Honey bee health

  Concern is growing over pollinator declines. Our lab examines the effects of natural stressors, such as pathogens (Nosema ceranae), and man-made stressors, such as pesticides, on honey bee health, foraging, flight, and orientation. read more »

• Superorganism inhibitory signaling

  What happens if conditions change and the communicated food source becomes depleted, contested, or dangerous? The honey bee stop signal provides inhibition that counteracts the positive feedback of honey bee waggle dances. Using field studies and modeling, we are studying this signal in detail and exploring conditions under which inhibitory signals may evolve. read more »

• Competition and olfactory eavesdropping

  We study olfactory eavesdropping in stingless bees and honey bees and examine the advantages of eavesdropping upon competitors and predators. read more »

• Learning, memory, and colony lifestyle

  Despite their small brain size and limited number of neurons relative to the central nervous systems of many vertebrates, social insects have evolved sophisticated learning and memory abilities and are therefore important models for animal cognition. However, these abilities can be impaired by field-realistic exposure to pesticides and other man-made stressors. read more »

Made by Daren Eiri, based on the design by Ahmed Chergaoui © copyright 2009, All Rights Reserved by the Regents of the University of California