Lomechusamania and Colony Collapse Disorder in Honeybees: Implications for Disease in Complex Animal Societies

Abstract

Colony Collapse Disorder (in North America, Honey Bee Depopulation Syndrome, or HBDS elsewhere) shows similarity to Lomechusamania in ants. A number of questions regarding the cause of CCD continues to make progress in fighting the disease difficult. Here information is provided that may result in an isolation of factors to identify the syndrome of effects that lead to the disease, based on studies of disease avoidance and illness behavior in other animal species. Most of the work to date to discover a cause has focused on a direct relationship between a pathogen or parasite or environmental condition and the Disorder. Lomechusamania may provide a different pathway not yet explored. Disease avoidance is an important survival tactic for many animals and if the mechanism is modified by a pathogen or toxin unusual outcomes may result. We can see on the molecular level how the 'Trojan Horse' of HIV defeats the highly evolved human immune system, or how interfering defective particles of virus can lead to disturbances in regulation in other disease states. In complex animal societies we might imagine that the opportunity for other forms of disruption are numerous.