Neonicotinoids, a widely used class of insecticide, are suspected of harming honeybee populations. But there is growing evidence that they might also have detrimental effects on other important pollinators.
Researchers believe neonicotinoids might at least in part be responsible for the mass deaths of honeybees around the world. Now two studies show that this class of insecticide could also harm wild bees and butterflies. Ben Woodcock and colleagues from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK examined changes in the occurrence of 62 wild bee species across England between 1994 and 2011 – the period when neonicotinoids became widely used. They found “evidence of increased population … continue reading
