Despite their collective efficiency and order, beehives are
often plagued by scourges that would rival a medieval city.
Varroa mites, deformed wing virus, and intestinal fungi are just
a few of the worst. Now researchers have identified a new enemy
that ought to strike fear in the hearts of honey bees: A tiny
fly that lays its eggs in the bee abdomen, giving rise to
maggots that wiggle out near the victim's head. So far, the
infection rate does not appear to be high enough to cause
problems for hives, but experts are casting a wary eye on the
fly. "It's certainly worth a lot more attention," says Dennis
vanEngelsdorp of the University of Maryland, College Park. The
parasitism was discovered by accident. In 2008, John Hafernik,
an entomologist at San Francisco State University in California,
was looking for insects to feed to praying mantises he had
collected for a class. He scooped up some dead honey bees that
were lying under a light outside his building on campus and left
several of the corpses in a vial on