Sponsored by
Sex lives of honeybees may explain their decline, say researchers
LEEDS University researchers are to investigate whether the worldwide decline in the number of honeybees is due to a lack of variety in their sex lives.
The three-year project will try to discover the cause of a recent increase in bee deaths around the world.
One theory says fewer potential mates for queen honeybees means colonies are less genetically diverse and more prone to disease.
The scientists hope that if the queen mates with enough different bees hives may be saved from being wiped out by disease.
Honeybees are vital to our food supply because they pollinate as much as a third of all the food grown in the UK.
The researchers will observe the bees' reaction to a common fungus parasite, which infects and eats larvae in hives, to discover possible genetic resistance.
The researchers believe that infections by parasites in some bees may be combining with other factors and overwhelming colonies' defences.
In 2008, the percentage of honeybee colonies dying off on average across the US was 35% - although some beekeepers lost 90% of their colonies.
A virus may have caused the deaths but the same virus found in other countries has not been as deadly. A decline in their numbers in recent years has been blamed on disease, a lack of suitable food sources in the countryside, pesticides and climate change.
The Leeds team will collaborate with the Government's National Bee Unit, near York, and the University of Copenhagen for the project, which has received about 500,000 from the Natural Environment Research Council.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds lose Ward to Palace: Is there anyone they can afford now?
- Sheffield Wednesday leaving it late to hijack Leeds United over Ward
- As Snodgrass dithers over Leeds, Warnock throws a lifeline
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Police turning blind eye to Asian voter fraud, says MP
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
