On 01/03/11 6:46 PM, sometime in the recent past Gunner posted this:
Since you both expressed a concern on this subject,..

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST...3?pageNumber=1

Researchers find "alarming" decline in bumblebees
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON | Mon Jan 3, 2011 3:36pm
EST

Genetic tests show that the four affected bumblebee species are inbred
and other tests implicate a parasite called Nosema bombi, Cameron*
said...

They documented a 96 percent decline in the numbers of the four
species, and said their range had shrunk by as much as 87 percent. As
with honeybees, a pathogen is partly involved, but the researchers
also found evidence of inbreeding caused by habitat loss....

*Dr Cameron: http://www.life.illinois.edu/entomol...y/cameron.html

Thanks Gunner. The idea of a bumblebee being inbred sounds like a result of
population decline as opposed to being the source of the decline. All
creatures would inbreed if their numbers declined too much as a mechanism of
survival.

"As with honeybees, a pathogen is partly involved" yet the article doesn't
mention the pathogen specifically. It does use the singular and not the
plural, pathogens, indicating an oversight or somebody has a specific poison
in mind.

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Wilson 44.69, -67.3