Back in 2007, Wired Magazine mused:
It’s only slightly less ridiculous than the other bee killing theory that year – cell phones.
I published a story about the loony idea that was proposed by some researcher in Europe about “cell phone radiation may be killing bees”. I pointed out that it was garbage then, as it is now. I thought it was so ridiculous that I made some spoof artwork on it:
Fast forward to 2012, it looks like the culprit for colony collapse disorder has been found and it has nothing to do with global warming. The best part? Some scientific serendipity.
“Zombie” Fly Parasite Killing Honeybees By Katherine Harmon, Scientific American Blogs
A heap of dead bees was supposed to become food for a newly captured praying mantis. Instead, the pile ended up revealing a previously unrecognized suspect in colony collapse disorder—a mysterious condition that for several years has been causing declines in U.S. honeybee populations, which are needed to pollinate many important crops. This new potential culprit is a bizarre—and potentially devastating—parasitic fly that has been taking over the bodies of honeybees (Apis mellifera) in Northern California.
John Hafernik, a biology professor at San Francisco State University, had collected some belly-up bees from the ground underneath lights around the University’s biology building. “But being an absent-minded professor,” he noted in a prepared statement, “I left them in a vial on my desk and forgot about them.” He soon got a shock. “The next time I looked at the vial, there were all these fly pupae surrounding the bees,” he said. A fly (Apocephalus borealis) had inserted its eggs into the bees, using their bodies as a home for its developing larvae. And the invaders had somehow led the bees from their hives to their deaths. A detailed description of the newly documented relationship was published online Tuesday in PLoS ONE.
…
The team found evidence of the fly in 77 percent of the hives they sampled in the Bay Area of California, as well as in some hives in the state’s agricultural Central Valley and in South Dakota. Previous research has found evidence that mites, a virus, a fungus, or a combination of these factors might be responsible for the widespread colony collapse.
===============================================================
Here’s the paper, it is fully open and free for viewing:
A New Threat to Honey Bees, the Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis
Andrew Core1, Charles Runckel2, Jonathan Ivers1, Christopher Quock1, Travis Siapno1, Seraphina DeNault1, Brian Brown3, Joseph DeRisi2, Christopher D. Smith1, John Hafernik1*
1 Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, United States of America, 2 Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America, 3 Entomology Section, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
Abstract
Honey bee colonies are subject to numerous pathogens and parasites. Interaction among multiple pathogens and parasites is the proposed cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a syndrome characterized by worker bees abandoning their hive. Here we provide the first documentation that the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, previously known to parasitize bumble bees, also infects and eventually kills honey bees and may pose an emerging threat to North American apiculture. Parasitized honey bees show hive abandonment behavior, leaving their hives at night and dying shortly thereafter. On average, seven days later up to 13 phorid larvae emerge from each dead bee and pupate away from the bee. Using DNA barcoding, we confirmed that phorids that emerged from honey bees and bumble bees were the same species. Microarray analyses of honey bees from infected hives revealed that these bees are often infected with deformed wing virus and Nosema ceranae. Larvae and adult phorids also tested positive for these pathogens, implicating the fly as a potential vector or reservoir of these honey bee pathogens. Phorid parasitism may affect hive viability since 77% of sites sampled in the San Francisco Bay Area were infected by the fly and microarray analyses detected phorids in commercial hives in South Dakota and California’s Central Valley. Understanding details of phorid infection may shed light on similar hive abandonment behaviors seen in CCD.
=============================================================
Here’s the culprit exiting a dead bee, figure 2C from the paper:
It appears the commercialization of honeybees, and the tendency to truck them around the nation for pollinization contributed to the spread of the parasite. The researchers mapped the process:
Read the full paper in web browser here or as PDF here.
This episode reminds me of the wailing over toads being killed due to “global warming” only to discover later it was a parasite…or how about Penguins? Remember that one? Nutty Story of the Day: “Global Warming” is Killing the Penguins in Antarctica. Turns out there was no connection at all. The next time we see some journalist going off on global warming causing something to die, please remind them of these blatant failures in correlation is not causation.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I have seen this before, alarmists trying to blame colony collapse on climate change, it’s not the cause. It’s been a well known fact that parasites, in particular the varroa bee mite, is causing the problem, and it actually is a real problem very much more so than any risk from AGW/ACC etc. I believe Australia is the only country that is free of parasites, the varroa mite in particular, so much so Aussie bees are exported in large numbers to “re-populate” areas where parasites have decimated colonies.
No bees, no plants, no food. Monsanto can modify all the seed on this rock it can, won’t help without bees.
maybe its time to nuke the little fellows with a fresh powder of DDT. Seeing as how DDT has pretty much been proved not guilty of all its evils.
Funny thing! Pesticides were killing off the Leapord Frogs. OH MY! This was the MIME for about 20 years among the “lefties” and enviromental wacko’s.
Then, about 10 years ago, an obscure professor at a small Iowa college, found a microscopic nematode was burrowing in the tadpoles, and causing the deaths and deformaties.
Funny thing! Next thing you know, someone might point out that alcohol consumption, obesity, and cigarette smoking are behind 90% of all “health problems”..and all within some modicum of control on the “individual” level.
Who knows! Oh well, I’ll DRINK to that….
I am sorry to say we have a problem in australia with mites killing our bees too, the good news our native bees are ok but like some australians are very lazy
This is just another example of the global warming hype taking the public’s eye off real and serious environmental problems and, in turn, the focus of the politicians who are after their votes, and that, in turn, the scientists who are after the grant monies the politicians facilitate.
Where’s the skepticism for this story?
Skepticism isn’t something you apply at your convenience. Skepticism is a fundamental principle of the scientific method. Let’s apply it here.
Max Hugoson says: “Next thing you know, someone might point out that alcohol consumption, obesity, and cigarette smoking are behind 90% of all “health problems”
And I’ll have a quiet smoke while I think on that, Max.
To be fair, this little fly isn’t the only culprit. The GW attribution actually disappeared three years ago when several different fungal diseases and parasites were found to cause the bee-death in several different places.
In short, it’s not a single problem. It’s several completely separate things happening to bees at about the same time, all thrown together into a single global “disaster”. Just like several different trends of temperature and precip in different places get thrown together into a single global “climate change.” Just like several countries that functioned quite well on their own get thrown together into a completely non-functional EU.
The real disease is our infantile modern compulsion to push all sorts of unrelated things into one box.
In earlier eras, an ability to discriminate between phenomena was considered a mark of intelligence and adulthood, while mashing things together into one useless concept was considered primitive.
Morgo you are right too. Pesticides will kill off some bees too. However, I had a swarm try to get into one of my air bricks on the house. I am forever, saving bees that come into the house, but this time I was warned if they get into the infrastructure of the house, they will be a ‘b’ to get rid of.
These were hive bees not natives. I sprayed household insecticide on them, no effect. Bees have developed a resistance to Mortein. I got rid of them eventually by hosing them with water.
It stopped them, but when they dried out they all disappeared. I probably drowned the queen who had relocated.
Mite as well blame the buzz ards.
Lends new meaning to the ‘concept’ of “buzzword”. Nothing to get Apish*t over, once again. Move along.
Imagine the microbe wars that have been going on since air travel started.
Unnoticed.
Zombies, in San Francisco? Color me surprised. Speaking of which, the famous and unnamed ‘Zombietime’ blogger is based there. He/she/it is well known for undercover photo essays of the um…different activities in that area. Just don’t click on the Folsom Street Fair section if you have a weak stomach!
polistra says:
January 6, 2012 at 7:40 pm
In short, it’s not a single problem. It’s several completely separate things happening to bees at about the same time, all thrown together into a single global “disaster”. Just like several different trends of temperature and precip in different places get thrown together into a single global “climate change.” Just like several countries that functioned quite well on their own get thrown together into a completely non-functional EU.
The real disease is our infantile modern compulsion to push all sorts of unrelated things into one box.
—————
Agreed on one level. But there is also a systems problem here, since the spread of parasites, flies, viruses, or whatever else is destroying these bee colonies, is being facilitated by our industrialized, mechanistic approaches to apiculture. Plants and animals shouldn’t be treated like machines. I wonder what ‘solutions’ science will offer for this massive and pervasive aggregate of destructive vectors?
As a beekeeper, I can tell you that this paper is intriguing but not definitive. It is being discussed extensively over on BEE-L. The hypothesis matches some, maybe even many, of the observed patterns of the colony collapse patterns in the last decade. Phorid flies does not appear to be a sufficient explanation, however. There may be interactions with various pesticides which influence susceptibility.
The phorid fly hypothesis also does not seem fit the “disappearing disease” episodes of prior decades. Many beekeepers are coming to the conclusion that CCD is merely the latest iteration of a syndrome that has reoccurred (and then mysteriously stopped) several times. The mechanism by which the phorid fly would lapse for so long, if it does, is unexplained.
The “global warming -> CCD” hypothesis, of course, was ludicrous and ignored, among other things, the fact that honeybees are a tropical species that thrives as temperature rises.
I knew it! I knew it was a pathogen of some sort from day one. Just like the Frogs! I had a late friend who was a beekeeper. he said it was a matter of keeping the hives and shipping clean
and the bees form those hives kept separate..He knew it was an infection of some sort. but what does a Finnish beekeeper with an Ph.D in Entymology know..?
Decades ago, I had a little side job doing some typing for a guy who ran a Monarch butterfly program, who was looking into the decline in numbers of the Monarchs. Long story short, he found a tiny wasp was laying its larvae in the caterpillars and they would end up dying before they could leave their cocoon. Natural cycle. A long cycle where the butterflies would peak, and then a few years later the parasitic wasp would peak, etc. It wasn’t pollution, or loss of habitat (though those factors certainly had a small influence) but I realized that he hated to report the actual cause because the funding would dry up. To his credit, he did report it fully and truly, and then went on to other projects.
Seems I’ve seen this hypothesis already worked out in detail, about a year ago. And the mites, and a virus. I believe that there is a combination of factors, and this is one. It’s not news, as far as I know. The Climate Change hypothesis can be used only as an exacerbating factory, but a minor one, as climate continually changes anyway, so this stuff happens all the time. My guess is that many such infestations have occurred in the past, honeybees died down, the parasites went away, honeybees recovered. It’s a natural dynamic. But the dynamic has changed with commercial breeding and shipping of bees. If this parasite can be regarded as the primary culprit, however, commercial breeding and shipping can also contribute to the solution, as we have the know-how to produce parasite-free colonies. This will only act as a damper, however — to permanently control the parasites must be eliminated in the wild. There are solutions, but they would be interventions that could have unintended consequences. It calls for more wisdom than we’ll find in the climate change alarmist community, so my advice is to keep those guys busy holding useless Kyoto and Copenhagen meetings while some real scientists work out solutions to such tough problems.
Mike the beekeepers. Bees exist in other than tropical regions though? However, how will they go, if the weather gets colder than expected? When less plants flower?
OK Global warming might have gotten away with it this time but the alarmists will be watching. And if global warming makes a slip they will POUNCE!
Mike Rossander says:
January 6, 2012 at 8:20 pm
==========
Just out of stupidity I would ask:
Do bees, let flies land on them and lay/insert larvae.
Is this some kind of symbiotic relationship gone awry ?
Ain’t Science wonderful. Even silly mistakes can lead to useful discoveries
….(ahem)…. Global warming causes the population of parasitic flies to increase.
The flies are very tiny, as the photograph clearly illustrates. To the naive Honey Bees, these wee parasites are like No-see-ums.
From the research article ‘A New Threat to Honey Bees, the Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis” by Core, Runckel, Ivers, et al:
~
Apocephalus borealis is a species of North American parasitoid phorid fly that parasitizes bumblebees, honey bees and paper wasps (Wiki)
—
Phoridae is a family of small, hump-backed flies resembling fruit flies. They are a diverse and successful group of insects. Approximately 4,000 species are known in 230 genera. The most well-known species is Megaselia scalaris, commonly called a “coffin fly”. (Wiki)
—
http://www.thegrower.com/news/regions/great-lakes/Helpful-fire-ant-parasites-mistaken-for-deadlly-honeybee-parasite-136782583.html
—
No Apis specie (sic) existed in New World in human time before introduction of Apis melifera by Europeans. (Wiki)
~
Bottom line: The Western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an introduced, or non-native species, but Apocephalus borealis is native to North America. That suggest to me that the Western honey bee has no natural defense against this particular parasite, which apparently has learned to take advantage of a new host species.
I, for one, have been perplexed by the comparative absence of sane climatologists and the recently declining numbers (or “collapse”) of sane academics in other fields, particularly (but far from exclusively) in Germany and the UK. My past conjectures regarding the cause of this have centred around possible use of mutagenic compounds in WWI or WWII, or residues of IQ diminishing chemicals used to spray ivy-covered college buildings. This paper has suggested another possible cause, the infection of previously sane scientists by parasitic pests, turning them into even greater parasitic pests themselves, sucking the life-blood from the economy. There has been little mention of this previously, though I doubt that the phenomenon is unprecedented. Thus far, I’ve found only this one reference to prior studies:
http://www.blinkx.com/watch-video/zombies-described/wA7X2HP9ewLXqSOWWGkZ7g.