Picture shows honeybee with pollen on sunflower, undated. Solitary bees are more affected by human-induced habitat loss than their social insect species, a new study suggests. (Francisca Segers, NewsX/Bee)
The bee's optomotor response is tested by showing videos of horizontally moving vertical bars to her on two screens, creating the illusion of optic flow in undated photo. Researchers in the United Kingdom have used an insect version of the straight-line walking challenge to show for the first time that insecticides damage the nervous system of honeybees. (RH Parkinson, C Fecher, and JR Gray, NewsX/Bee)