Bees too get heady when high on coke

Washington, Dec 24 (ANI): Besides being social, bees resemble humans in one more respect: they react to cocaine by dancing madly, "talking" more and exaggerating, tests have found.

And they struggle to cope when the Class A drug is withdrawn.

Strongly stimulating human reward centres in low doses, cocaine is extremely addictive and can be fatal in high doses. But this potent compound did not evolve to ensnare humans in addiction.

Andrew Barron from Macquarie University, Australia, explains that cocaine is a powerful insect neurotoxin, protecting coca bushes from munching insects without rewarding them.

To reach the conclusion, Barron fed the insects cocaine for a week to test the effect on their brains and behaviour patterns.

He found bees that usually "tell" others of pollen using a "waggle dance" did so more frantically when given cocaine.

The study has been published in The Journal of Experimental Biology. (ANI)