Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is an insect-pathogenic fungus, discovered by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1859, and currently found predominantly in tropical forest ecosystems.

Recently, molecular analyses of honey bees from Belgium tested positive for Apocephalus borealis.

Eggs are laid in the abdomen of the bee; when the larvae hatch, they feed on flight muscles in the thorax and hemolymph. "We assume it's while the bees are out foraging because we don't see the flies hanging around the bee hives," Hafernik said. Development of larvae takes an average of one week. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons. These bees often fly …

These bees often fly toward light and wind up unable to control their own bodies. Photograph by Bob Hammon, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org. After a bee dies, as many as 13 fly larvae crawl out from the bee’s neck.

The research team plans to track bees with radio tags and video cameras to see whether infected bees are leaving the hive willingly or getting kicked out in the middle of the night—and where the flies are finding the bees in which they lay their eggs. The parasitic fly lays eggs in a bee's abdomen. Figure 4. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons.

Photograph by Lyle J. Buss, University of Florida. Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at, Solving the Mystery of the Vanishing Bees, What's in Your Wiener? The body is smooth and pale yellow in color (Figure 2). Hafernik and his colleagues hope that the simple way they made their discovery "will enable professional and amateur beekeepers to collect vital samples of bees that leave the hive at night"—with a light trap, for instance—and keep them around for a week or so to observe for any signs of emerging larvae. Zombie bees: Fly parasite causes zombie-like stupor The researchers also discovered fly pupae near dead bees at the bottom of their laboratory hive, … The first abdominal segment has a brown hue and pale posterior margin, the second segment has mid-lateral brown patches, the third and fourth segments have larger dark patches, the fifth segment is entirely brown, and the sixth segment has brown markings at the anterior angles.

[1], Female A. borealis ovipositing eggs into the abdomen of a worker honey bee, Two final-instar larvae of A. borealis exiting a honey bee worker at the junction of the head and thorax, A citizen science project, "Zombee Watch", uses a social media framework for people to report sightings of potentially parasitized bees.

These bees often fly toward light and wind up unable to control their own bodies. Psyche 31(1): 41-44. doi:10.1155/1924/42175 (used with Open Access permission). Reasons for abandoning the hive remain unclear. EcoHealth 10: 434-445. The rates of infection in honey bees fluctuate as A. borealis populations increase and decline over the seasons. In 2012, Dr. John Hafernik and his colleges at San Francisco State University discovered that Apocephalus borealis also parasitizes honey bees (Figure 9). Apocephalus borealis’ legs are light brown and the female’s ovipositor is brownish-black with a pale tip (Brues 1924, Brown 1993). Figure by Brues CT. 1924. Due to a limited number of collected specimens and lack of wild observations, many details pertaining to Apocephalus borealis’ dispersal, interactions with hosts, and insecticidal susceptibility remain unknown. The potential economic impact the zombie fly may have on the honey bee industry is worth consideration. There is a record of Apocephalus borealis in South America. The parasitic fly lays eggs in a bee’s abdomen. Notes on Some New England Phoridae (Diptera). And the invaders had somehow led the bees from their hives to their deaths. [1] The infection of European honey bees in North America by A. borealis is a recent development that was first discovered by Dr. John Hafernik, who collected some dead specimens near a light source at San Francisco State University's campus.
Like all flies,the zombie fly is holometabolous and undergoes complete metamorphosis during its life cycle. A detailed description of the newly documented relationship was published online Tuesday in PLoS ONE. Adults: To an untrained eye, zombie fly adults may resemble small fruit flies.

In 2012, Dr. John Hafernik and his colleges at San Francisco State University discovered that Apocephalus borealis also parasitizes honey bees (Figure 9). A Citizen Scientist initiative, entitled ZomBee Watch, was founded by workers at San Francisco State University and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. © 2020 Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc. Support our award-winning coverage of advances in science & technology.

Worldwide pollinator decline is a significant economical concern. 2012.

(2013). 2002. [5], It is hypothesized that the bumble bee is A. borealis’s native host but may have a host shift to the honeybee. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Honey bees are leading insect pollinators and the ecosystem services they provides have an annual net worth of $215 billion worldwide. Taxonomy and preliminary phylogeny of the parasitic genus. (2012). [clarification needed] Other analyses gave similar results, including morphological criteria, sequencing of 18S rRNA genes, and cross-infection of honey bees using phorids that had emerged from both honeybees and bumblebees,[clarification needed] thus confirming that the phorids attacking honey bees are the same species as those attacking bumble bees. The head is fairly square with distinctive hairs and bristles that are used for distinguishing Apocephalus borealis from other members of the genus Apocephalus. Two final instar larvae of Apocephalus borealis exiting a honey bee worker at the junction of the head and thorax (the larvae are arrowed). Species in the genus Apocephalus are members of the family Phoridae, and members of this family often are referred to as phorid flies, hump-backed flies, or scuttle flies. Figure by Chase Kimmel, University of Florida, using Esri ArcGIS 10.2: the world physical map layer is from the US National Park Service and the Apocephalus borealis distribution data was accessed through the GBIF Data Portal, 2014-08-19. Photograph by Kevin Cole from Pacific Coast, USA (en:User:Kevinlcole) - 208-12749. These were placed in a vial and forgotten. (2012).

Discover world-changing science. It has been retrieved from host insects in the western and eastern regions of the United States and Canada (Figure 1).

Of the bumble bee species parasitized by Apocephalus borealis, Bombus vosnesenskii (Figure 7) and Bombus melanopygus (Fig.

Photograph by John Hafernik from Core et al. Figure by John Hafernik, San Francisco State University. [1] Infected bees can be found walking in circles, as well as losing the ability to stand. The top edge of the wings have very fine fringe consisting of fairly long cilia positioned close together (Figure 5). A heap of dead bees was supposed to become food for a newly captured praying mantis. A number of phorid flies primarily parasitize ants and some have been introduced into the United States for biological control of the red imported fire ant.

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. If Apocephalus borealis has demonstrated a shift in host preference, a specific management plan may be required to avoid possible economic impacts. "When we observed the bees for some time—the ones that were alive—we found that they walked in circles, often with no sense of direction," Andrew Core, a graduate student who works with Hafernik and a co-author on the new paper, said in a prepared statement, describing them as behaving "something like a zombie." Pathogens, pests, and economics: drivers of honey bee colony declines and losses.


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