The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment

DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY

Sharoni Shafir

Director, B. Triwaks Bee Research Center

Ph.D. 1995, Stanford University

Associate Professor

Department Head

Department of Entomology,
Faculty of Agriculture, Food and the Environment,
P.O. Box 12, Rehovot 76100, Israel.

Tel: 972-8-948-9401
Fax: 972-8-948-9842

shafir@agri.huji.ac.il

Research Areas:

Animal Cognition
Behavioral Ecology
Pollination Ecology

Teaching:

Entomology Lab
Honey Bee Biology
Behavioral Ecology of Pollination

Research Interests:

Decision-making processes in honey bees
Cognitive ecology of pollination
Crop pollination

Editor:

Animal Behaviour http://www.journals.elsevier.com/animal-behaviour/

Selected Publications:

  1. Shafir, S. 1994. Intransitivity of preferences in honey bees -- support for comparative evaluation of foraging options. Animal Behaviour 48: 55 -- 67.
  2. Shafir, S. 2000. Risk-sensitive foraging: the effect of relative variability. Oikos. 89: 663-669.
  3. Shafir, S., T.A. Waite, and B.H. Smith. 2002. Context-dependent violations of rational choice in honeybees (Apis mellifera) and gray jays. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 51: 180-187.
  4. Dag , A., A.E. Fetscher , O. Afik , Y. Yeselson , A.A. Schaffer , Y. Kamer , N.M. Waser , M.A. Madore , M.L. Arpaia , R. Hofshi , and S. Shafir . 2003. Honey bee (Apis mellifera) strains differ in avocado (Persea americana) nectar foraging preferences. Apidologie 34: 299-309.
  5. Shafir, S., A. Bechar , and E. U. Weber . 2003. Cognition-mediated coevolution – context-dependent evaluations and sensitivity of pollinators to variability in nectar rewards. Plant Systematics and Evolution 238: 195-209.
  6. Weber, E. U., S. Shafir , and A.R. Blais . 2004. Predicting risk‑sensitivity in humans and lower animals: risk as variance or coefficient of variation. Psychological Review 111: 430-445.
  7. Shafir, S., G. Menda and B.H. Smith . 2005. Caste-specific differences in risk-sensitivity in honey bees (Apis mellifera). Animal Behaviour 69: 859-868.
  8. Afik, O., A. Dag, Z. Kerem, and S. Shafir. 2006. Analyses of avocado (Persea americana) nectar properties and their perception by honey bees (Apis mellifera). Journal of Chemical Ecology. 32: 1949-1963.
  9. Drezner-Levy, T. and S. Shafir. 2007. Parameters of variable reward distributions that affect risk sensitivity of honey bees. Journal of Experimental Biology. 210: 269-277.
  10. Stern, R.A., G. Sapir, S. Shafir, A. Dag, and M. Goldway. 2007. The appropriate management of honey bee colonies for pollination of Rosaceae fruit trees in warm climates. Middle Eastern and Russian Journal of Plant Science and Biotechnology. 1: 13-19.
  11. Afik, O., A. Dag, and S. Shafir. 2008. Honey bee (Apis mellifera) round dance is influenced by trace elements composition of floral nectar. Animal Behaviour. 75: 371-377.
  12. Shafir S., T. Reich, E. Tsur, I. Erev and A. Lotem. 2008. Perceptual accuracy and conflicting effects of certainty on risk-taking behaviour. Nature 453: 917-920.
  13. Maori, E., N. Paldi, S. Shafir, H. Kalev, E. Tsur, E. Glick, I. Sela. In press. IAPV, a bee-affecting virus associated with colony collapse disorder can be silenced by dsRNA ingestion. Insect Molecular Biology 18: 55-60.
  14. Drezner-Levy, T., B. H. Smith and S. Shafir. 2009. The effect of foraging specialization on various learning tasks in the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 64: 135-148
  15. Shafir, S., L. Kabanoff, M. Duncan and B. P. Oldroyd. 2009. Honey bee (Apis mellifera) sperm competition in vitro – two are no less viable than one. Apidologie 40: 556-561.
  16. Avni, D., A. Dag and S. Shafir. 2009. Pollen sources for honey bees in Israel: Source, periods of shortage and influence on population growth. Israel Journal of Plant Sciences 57: 263-275.
  17. Shafir, S., & A.B. Barron. 2010. Optic flow informs distance but not profitability for honeybees. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B 277: 1241-1245.
  18. Afik, O., A. Dag, Y. Yeselson, A. Schaffer & S. Shafir. 2010. Selection and breeding of honey bees for higher or lower collection of Avocado nectar. Journal of Economic Entomology 103: 228-233.

updated May 2012