Fermentation by fungi converts stored pollen into bee bread that is fed to honey bee larvae, Apis mellifera, so the diversity of fungi in bee bread may be related to its food value. To explore the relationship between fungicide exposure and bee bread fungi, samples of bee bread collected from bee colonies pollinating orchards from 7 locations over 2 years were analyzed for fungicide residues and fungus composition. There were detectable levels of fungicides from regions that were sprayed before bloom. An organic orchard had the highest quantity and variety of fungicides, likely due to the presence of treated orchards within bees’ flight range. Aspergillus, Penicillium, Rhizopus, and Cladosporium (beneficial fungi) were the primary fungal isolates found, regardless of habitat differences. There was some variation in fungal components amongst colonies, even within the same apiary. The variable components were Absidia, Alternaria, Aureobasidium, Bipolaris, Fusarium, Geotrichum, Mucor, Nigrospora, Paecilomyces, Scopulariopsis, and Trichoderma. The number of fungal isolates was reduced as an effect of fungicide contamination. Aspergillus abundance was particularly affected by increased fungicide levels, as indicated by Simpson's diversity index. Bee bread showing fungicide contamination originated from colonies, many of which showed chalkbrood symptoms.

Water balance characteristic data are compiled and determined for each non-fed instar of the American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, vector of tularaemia and spotted fever rickettsia, comparing wild-caught and laboratory-colonized populations, to establish how habitat influences D. variabilis dehydration resistance. In contrast to ticks from the field, laboratory-colonized ticks show a progression in percentage body water content from a low of 59% in the egg to a high of 68% in the adult (all instars from the field population have similar values, averaging 63%) and are less tolerant of water stress (2–6% reduction in dehydration tolerance (DT)). We presume that these are colony artefacts as a product of relaxing selective pressure by rearing under optimal conditions of temperature, relative humidity (RH) and host quality. For field-collected and laboratory-colonized populations, larvae survive down to 75–85% RH [critical equilibrium humidity (CEH)], but nymphs and adults require moist air of 85–93% RH, and eggs do not absorb water vapour. Larvae, but not eggs, experience rapid water loss at 30–35°C [critical transition temperature (CTT)], which is 5°C lower than that of post-larval instars. Larvae succumb to dehydration more readily (lower DT limit, eggs have the highest) and are more prone to water loss by having a high net transpiration rate (NTR) as a result of their minute body size and high activation energies for water loss. Comparison of DT with water loss during development for seven tick species reveals that NTR is a species-specific characteristic and species that lose water quickly or slowly as larvae do so for subsequent developmental instars. The CEH, CTT and DT reveal little with regard to habitat suitability and matching a tick to a particular habitat. Ticks operate at the microhabitat, not habitat, level, indicating that ticks can find suitable refuges in many different geographic areas, which accounts for the overlapping distribution of ticks with different NTRs.