Nature & Environment
'Zombie' fly parasite killing bees
By
T.K. RandallJanuary 5, 2012 ·
4 comments
Image Credit: Aaron1a12
The long standing mystery of dying honey bee colonies may finally have a culprit: 'zombie' flies.
Biology professor John Hafernick may have stumbled across the answer to colony collapse disorder - apocephalus borealis flies had been using bee corpses as incubators for their larvae, a process that has been somehow transferring back to live colonies. The fly's parasites not only affect honey bees but bumble bees and paper wasps as well.
A heap of dead bees was supposed to become food for a newly captured praying mantis. Instead, the pile ended up revealing a previously unrecognized suspect in colony collapse disorder.
Source:
Yahoo! News |
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