Inbred bumblebees 'face extinction threat'

Albert Einstein once said: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.”

Some of the UK's rarest bumblebees are at risk of becoming extinct as a result of inbreeding, research suggests. It seems that the lack of genetic diversity is making the bees more vulnerable to a number of threats, including parasitic infection. Scientists warn that some populations of bees are becoming increasingly isolated as a result of habitat loss.