A recent quantitative weight of evidence (QWoE) assessment of higher tier studies on the toxicity and risks of neonicotinoids in honeybees by Solomon and Stephenson reported a colony-level no-observed-adverse effect concentration (NOAEC) of 25 µg/kg (ppb) for imidacloprid and clothianidin. The toxicity of these insecticides to honeybees is however known to be reinforced with chronic exposure, and extrapolation of time-to lethal-effect toxicity plots compiled from published studies indicate that an imidacloprid level of 0.25 ppb, i.e. one-hundredth of the reported colony NOAEC, would kill a large proportion of bees nearing the end of their life. This huge discrepancy points to the impressive resilience of beehives in counteracting lethal effects of neonicotinoids, as long as the colony remains otherwise healthy with a productive queen that is able to maintain the colony population. The explicit connection between innate immunity loss and the neonicotinoids leading to infestation with a wide variety of pathogens appears to be the decisive factor that ultimately bring down stressed colonies.

中文翻译：

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给编辑的信“蜂箱的弹性”

所罗门和斯蒂芬森最近对蜜蜂中的新烟碱类药物的毒性和风险进行了更高级研究的定量证据权重（QWoE）评估表明，菌落一级的未观察到的有害作用浓度（NOAEC）为25 µg / kg（ppb）用于吡虫啉和可比安定。然而，已知这些杀虫剂对蜜蜂的毒性会随着长期暴露而增强，根据已发表的研究得出的具有致死时间的毒性图推断，吡虫啉的水平为0.25 ppb，即报道的NOAEC菌落的百分之一。会在生命接近尾声时杀死大部分蜜蜂。这种巨大的差异表明，蜂箱在抵御新烟碱的致死作用方面具有令人印象深刻的回弹力，只要殖民地保持健康，生产女王就可以维持殖民地人口。先天性免疫力丧失和导致大量病原体侵染的新烟碱之间的明确联系似乎是最终降低压力菌落的决定性因素。