A parasitic mite has helped a virus wipe out billions of honeybees across the globe, say scientists. A team studying honeybees in Hawaii found that the Varroa mite helped spread a particularly nasty strain of a disease called deformed wing virus. This has led to "one of the most widely-distributed and contagious insect viruses on the planet".

If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live."

Albert Einstein