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SCIENCEMonday 12 October 2015
Zombee watch helps scientists track honeybee killer
MICHAEL HILL a long time, though Ha-
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HURLEY, N.Y. (AP) -- Call fernik notes that reports of
them “The Buzzing Dead.”
Honeybees are being honeybees swarming night
threatened by tiny flies
that lead them to lurch lights are a recent phe-
and stagger around like
zombies. The afflicted bees nomenon.
often make uncharacteris-
tic night flights, sometimes It’s not clear if zombie bees
buzzing around porch
lights before dying. can be linked to colony col-
Well-documented on the
West Coast, some zombie- lapse disorder, a syndrome
bee cases also have been
detected in eastern states in which whole colonies fail
by volunteers helping track
its spread. This comes as after the loss of adult work-
honeybees have already
been ravaged in recent er bees. Scientists have not
years by mysterious colony
collapse disorder, vampire been able to prove what
mites and nutritional defi-
ciencies. causes CCD, though some
“We’re not making a case
that this is the doomsday believe it could be an in-
bug for bees,” said John
Hafernik, a biology profes- terplay of factors including
sor at San Francisco State
University. “But it is certain- mites, pesticides and habi-
ly an interesting situation
where we have a parasite tat loss. For now, threats
that seems to affect the
behavior of bees and has like mites are more of a
them essentially abandon-
ing their hive.” concern to researchers
Hafernik in 2012 started a
project to enlist people to than the spread of zombie
track the spread of zom-
bie bees called ZomBee fly parasites.
Watch. Participants are
asked to upload photos of “We have several other
the bees they collect and
photos of pupae and adult stresses on bees and we
flies as they emerge. They
have more than 100 con- don’t want any other stress
firmed cases.
The fly had already been In this Sept. 1, 2015, file photo, a honeybee works atop gift zinnia in Accord, N.Y. While scientists like this one,” said Ramesh
known to afflict bumble- have documented cases of tiny flies infesting honeybees, causing the bees to lurch and stagger Sagili, an assistant profes-
bees and yellow jack- around like zombies before they die, researchers don’t know the scope of the problem. sor of apiculture at Oregon
ets. Then in 2008, Hafernik
made a discovery after many zombie honeybee ing.” watchers like Naughton State University. “We have
scooping up some disori- cases found in the San And there are a lot of facts are just now detecting a to be cautious, but I’m not
ented bees beneath a Francisco area and be- to find. parasite that has been alarmed that this parasite
light outside his campus yond. Researchers believe It’s possible that zombie targeting honeybees for is going to create a big
office. Before long, he no- Apocephalus borealis flies problem.”q
ticed pupae emerging attack bees as they for-
from a bee. age. Monarch butterflies begin
That led to the first of
The flies pierce the bees’
entering Mexico on migration abdomens and deposit
eggs, affecting the behav-
ior of the doomed bees. MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mon- In this Jan. 4, 2015 file photo, monarch butterflies perch on a twig
A beekeeper in Burlington, arch butterflies have be- at the Piedra Herrada sanctuary, near Valle del Bravo, Mexico.
Vermont, gun entering Mexico on
detected the first zombie their annual migration from Associated Press
case in the East, in 2013. the United States and Can-
Then this summer, amateur ada. grounds covered 2.79 ous February’s 1.65 acres
beekeeper Joe Naughton Mexico’s Environment De- acres (1.13 hectares). (0.67 hectare), which was
of Hurley, New York, dis- partment said Thursday That was a 69 percent the lowest since record-
covered the first of two re- that the orange-and-black rebound from the previ- keeping began in 1993.q
cently confirmed cases in butterflies had been spot-
the Hudson Valley, north of ted by park rangers enter-
New York City. ing Coahuila state, on the
Naughton, who has border with Texas.
200,000 or more bees, is The butterflies head for the
not panicking just yet. fir- and pine forest of cen-
“You know, the ‘zombie’ tral Mexico, where they
thing is a little bit sensa- spend the winter. No but-
tional and some people terfly lives to make the full
hear that and they go right round trip, and it is unclear
into alarm bells ringing,” how they find the route
Naughton said. “Where each year.
the state of things are right Last year, butterflies that
now is mostly just fact find- reached the wintering
