Submission + - Parasitic Fly Suspected Culprit in Bee's Colony Co (scientificamerican.com)
eldavojohn writes: The latest proposed cause of colony collapse disorder has been published in PLOS ONE citing a 'new' parasitic fly that disorients bees who eventually die. Afterwards the larvae from the fly crawl out of the bee. It was accidentally stumbled upon by a professor collecting random dead bees as food for his mantis and leaving them alone long enough for the larva to 'hatch.' The published paper proposes this as the primary suspect as the bees seem to become disoriented and leave only to die off somewhere probably alone and not in clusters. This would explain why CCD has not resulted in bee graveyards surrounding hives. From the article, 'The parasitic fly lays eggs in a bee’s abdomen. Several days later, the parasitized bee bumbles out of the hives—often at night—on a solo mission to nowhere. These bees often fly toward light and wind up unable to control their own bodies. After a bee dies, as many as 13 fly larvae crawl out from the bee’s neck. The bees’ behavior seems similar to that of ants that are parasitized—and then decapitated from within—by other fly larvae from the Apocephalus genus.' What this means is that beekeepers can collect bees in a light trap at night and keep them in a jar to see if Apocephalus genus larvae emerge. Employ skepticism as Slashdot has reported on prior occasions that the confirmed culprit is anything from fungus to pesticide.
