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- Three-inch blanket of snow heading our way today
- Alan Shearer in list of favourites for Leeds and England jobs: Latest odds
- Barnsley’s Keith Hill invokes Fawlty Towers over link with Leeds job
- McCormack feels United search can be narrowed down
- Redfearn throws down gauntlet as queue builds at Elland Road
- Rival chips in with £500,000 to restore the original Harry Ramsden’s
- Visit from Princess as Serbian culture celebrated
- SportsTalk: Leeds United’s manager search, Super League and Calcutta Cup
- Libraries aren’t like supermarkets, they are magical places where dreams begin
- Strategic review will lead to job losses at Yorkshire Bank
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West
