The honey bee, Apis mellifera, cannot be used as a surrogate for the stingless bee Scaptotrigona mexicana to evaluate the effects of pesticide exposure in agricultural landscapes in Southern Mexico

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Despite the crucial role of highly social bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae) in crop production, agricultural practices that embrace the use of chemicals for pest control put these important pollinators at risk. Most studies that have evaluated the expression of enzymatic routes involved in xenobiotic removal in these species, including pesticides, have been carried out in the honey bee, Apis mellifera. These results have been used to figure out the response of non-Apis bees to pesticides, but recent works suggest that such response may be species-specific. We tested this possibility by evaluating the glutathione S-transferase (GST), cytochrome P450 , acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and α-, β- and ρ-NPA esterases in foragers both of the stingless bee Scaptotrigona mexicana and of A. mellifera. Foragers from colonies of both species located in two sites in an agricultural landscape in Chiapas, Mexico were collected every four months for a year and enzymatic expression was measured. Scaptotrigona mexicana showed a higher enzymatic activity and AChE inhibition than A. mellifera in both sites. Neither site nor time affected statistically the expression of enzymes in each species. Our results suggest that A. mellifera cannot be used as a surrogate for other species, at least for S. mexicana. The higher enzymatic activities in S. mexicana related to A. mellifera can be explained by the presence of organochlorines and organophosphates in the study area, as revealed in previous studies, and the shorter fly range of S. mexicana. eng