Researchers say they have unlocked the genetic secrets of honey bees’ high sensitivity to environmental change.
Scientists from the UK and Australia think their findings could help show links between nutrition, environment and the insects’ development.
It could, they suggest, offer an insight into problems like Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious cause of mass bee deaths globally.
The findings appear in Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
“Honey bees live in complex societies comprising tens of thousands of individuals,” explained study co-author Paul Hurd from Queen Mary, University of London.
“Most of these are female ‘worker’ honeybees that are unable to reproduce and instead devote their short lives to finding food in flowers… and other tasks such as nursing larvae inside the hive.
( via bbc.co.uk )