Study provides the first evidence that a broadly used pesticide alone can harm bee flight

In 17 percent of colonies analyzed in a recent Cornell study, the bees' food stores revealed the presence of acutely high levels of pesticide exposure, while 73 percent were found to have chronic exposure

Scientists found that a common antibiotic cleared out beneficial gut bacteria in the bees, making way for a harmful pathogen, which also occurs in humans, to get a foothold

Urban beekeeping could suffer as a result, study authors say

Jeff Whitworth, associate professor of entomology, said bumblebees are not headed for extinction

The report stresses the need to develop more in-depth knowledge about the status of pollinators worldwide

The discovery is a concern because alterations can affect the gut’s ability to metabolize sugars and peptides, processes that are vital for honeybee health

Team wants to understand everything about the life of a bumblebee colony

Because the concentration of scents changes drastically in air polluted environments, this could impact important interactions between plants and insects

“This metholodogy provides a much more accurate and realistic image of the shape, size and interactions of soft tissues in the very small brains of insects.”