This insect can recognize human faces. It can outsmart supercomputers in solving complex mathematical problems. When it’s ill, it self-medicates. It communicates through whole-body sign language that involves dance and orientation to both the sun and the insect’s home. It can even sniff out explosives from kilometres away.
And while it’s doing all that, this insect helps to feed most of the world’s human population.
This smart little worker, the bee, is disappearing.
The mysterious collapses of honey-bee colonies first documented eight years ago continue. The declines affect not only the familiar, beloved honey bee, but wild bee species, too.
Read the rest of this article in the Victoria Times Colonist…
And if you’re really interested, browse through the following:
- Changes in the Status and Distribution of the Yellow-faced Bumble Bee
- Loss of wild insects hurts crops around the world
- Bees ‘Self-Medicate’ When Infected With Some Pathogens
- Extraordinary insights into miniature brain activity
- Tiny-brained bees solve a complex mathematical problem
- Bees need Europe’s pesticide ban, whatever the UK says
- Bees replacing dogs as detectors of volatile organic compounds
You must be logged in to leave a reply.