PORTLAND (AP) – The president of one of Maine’s biggest blueberry companies is in Pennsylvania to present a $50,000 check in support of research into a mysterious sickness that has led to the disappearance of millions of honeybee colonies.

Ed Flanagan of Wyman’s of Maine was planning to be at Penn State University on Thursday to dispense a check in support of research into “colony collapse disorder,” a phenomenon that’s blamed for the deaths of about one third of U.S. bee colonies in the past two years.

Bees are vital to U.S. agriculture because they pollinate many flowering crops, including blueberries.

Flanagan says that Wyman’s will spend more than $1 million to bring more than 10,000 hives to Maine this spring to pollinate the company’s blueberry fields.