Parasitic flies that turn honeybees into night-flying zombies could provide another clue to cracking the mystery of colony collapse disorder.
Since 2007, thousands of hives in the US have been decimated as bees inexplicably go missing overnight. The best explanation so far is that multiple stresses, perhaps parasitic mites, viruses or pesticides, combine to tip the bees over the edge.
of San Francisco State University in California and colleagues discovered that hosting , a parasitic fly found throughout North America, makes bees fly around in a disoriented way at night, when they normally roost in the hive, before killing them.
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Although unlikely to be the sole cause of colony collapse disorder, Hafernik thinks the parasitic fly discovery may help explain why bees quit their hives. 鈥淭hey seem to leave their hives in the middle of the night on what we call the 鈥榝light of the living dead鈥�,鈥� he says.
Since the discovery, the parasitic flies have been found at 77 per cent of sites in San Francisco Bay, and in hives in South Dakota.
Hafernik鈥檚 team will now investigate whether the nocturnal flights occur because the parasites affect the bees鈥� 鈥渃lock鈥� genes, which govern when they are active. It is also possible that contaminated bees are ejected to save the hive.
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