WHEN honey bees began to desert their hives recently, never to return, it threw apiarists into a panic.

Moreover, it was in 2004 that America began importing bees from australia-just when American beekeepers are thought to have seen the first suspected cases of colony collapse disorder.

Colony collapse disorder became widespread in America in the winter of 2006-07, when about a quarter of the nation's beekeepers were affected, each losing between 30% and 90% of their winged workers.