colony collapse disorder

English

Noun

colony collapse disorder (uncountable)

1. A mysterious and widespread phenomenon of the sudden disappearance of colonies of bees.
   • 2007 May 12, “Mysterious Honeybee Deaths”, in Houston Chronicle:

     As many as a quarter of the nation's commercially kept bees went missing last year, presumed dead, in a phenomenon now called colony collapse disorder.

   • 2012 January 3, Andrew Core, Charles Runckel, Jonathan Ivers, Christopher Quock, Travis Siapno, Seraphina DeNault, Brian Brown, Joseph DeRisi, Christopher D. Smith, John Hafernik, “A New Threat to Honey Bees, the Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis”, in PLOS, →DOI:

     Interaction among multiple pathogens and parasites is the proposed cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a syndrome characterized by worker bees abandoning the hive. Here we provide the first documentation that the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, previously known to parasitize bumble bees, also infects and eventually kills honey bees and may pose an emerging threat to North American apiculture.