Behavioural methods to assess the effects of pesticides on honey bees

We reported on the use of experimental procedures dealing with these behavioural skills in the assessment of pesticide effects. The relevance of the following methods are discussed: (1) use of automatic activity counters set at the hive entrance to establish the balance between outgoing and incoming worker bees; (2) observation of the homing flights of bees; (3) the analysis of the information encoded in the dances of returning foragers; and (4) recording of the conditioned proboscis extension response on restrained bees to evaluate individual learning performances involved in foraging behaviour. These behavioural assays could be developed for sublethal toxicity assessment. However, careful validation of the tests is needed before being used in a routine evaluation procedure. At a minimum, they are valuable tools to understand the mechanisms underlying insecticide toxicity.