More than 90 percent of all bee species are not organized in colonies, but fight their way through life alone.
More than 90 percent of all bee species are not organized in colonies, but fight their way through life alone. They are also threatened. Scientists from Würzburg demand more research on the ecology of these insects.
An apple plantation in spring. The trees are in full bloom. But to ensure that they also yield in autumn, workers have to do a real fluff job for weeks: each individual flower is manually pollinated with brushes – because there are no bees left to do the job. Not a nice vision of the future. But in some regions of China this is already reality. And the disappearance of the bees is reported all over the world.
The exact reason for the bee mortality is not known. Pesticides from agriculture, destruction of habitats, pathogens – probably several factors play together. A research group at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, is now focusing on another factor. It is the bacteria that live in and with bees. Many of them are important for the health of bees. If they suffer, so do the bees.
Read more at: University of Würzburg
A solitary bee leaves an artificial nest. The individual breeding chambers are separated and each contains only one larva. This prevents direct contact with sisters or mothers. (Photo Credit: Alexander Keller / University of Wuerzburg)
