Queen health is crucial to colony survival of social bees. Recently, queen failure has been proposedto be a major driver of managed honey bee colony losses, yet few data exist concerning effects ofenvironmental stressors on queens. Here we demonstrate for the first time that exposure to fieldrealisticconcentrations of neonicotinoid pesticides during development can severely affect queensof western honey bees (Apis mellifera). In pesticide-exposed queens, reproductive anatomy (ovaries)and physiology (spermathecal-stored sperm quality and quantity), rather than flight behaviour,were compromised and likely corresponded to reduced queen success (alive and producing workeroffspring). This study highlights the detriments of neonicotinoids to queens of environmentally andeconomically important social bees, and further strengthens the need for stringent risk assessmentsto safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services that are vulnerable to these substances.
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