Save the chimney bees! A true story about rescuing native bees
This week on the podcast I have a story about an effort to rescue a community of native bees in Pennsylvania: Anthophora abrupta, the chimney bee. This story of protection and conservation might seem a little strange to you – because everything seems to go just right.
It's good to be back after a couple weeks. I certainly had fun pulling this story together for you. So I hope you enjoy it.
The Bee Report podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms such as Apple and Spotify.
Do you have tips, comments, questions or ideas for collaboration? Please send them to tbr@bymattkelly.com.
Conservation
Endangered bee species thriving on land where flower-rich meadows reintroduced in UK
(BBC) Lytes Cary Manor in Somerset has been designated as one of two "exemplary" sites for the rare shrill carder bee. The shrill carder has disappeared from 97 percent of the U.K.'s wildflower meadows since the 1950s. Lytes Cary Manor's status as an exemplary site comes after almost a decade of work by volunteers, staff and farm tenants on the National Trust's 361-acre estate to recreate wildflower-rich areas.
Conservation goals may be stymied by a lack of land for biodiversity offsetting
(EurekAlert/University of Queensland) Developers may struggle to find enough land to offset the biodiversity impacts of future development, according to a University of Queensland study. The challenges are evident worldwide and could significantly limit the ability to achieve global conservation goals.
Economics
Virus-infected honey bees more likely to gain entrance to healthy hives
(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Honey bees that guard hive entrances are twice as likely to allow in trespassers from other hives if the intruders are infected with the Israeli acute paralysis virus, a deadly pathogen of bees, researchers report. "The most important finding of our study is that IAPV infection increases the likelihood that infected bees are accepted by foreign colonies. Somehow, the infected bees are able to circumvent the guards of foreign colonies, which they shouldn’t be able to do."
Policy/Law
Endangered Species Act protection sought for Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee
(Center for Biological Diversity) The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned for Endangered Species Act protection today for the critically imperiled Suckley's cuckoo bumble bee, which has declined by more than 90 percent. The bee is unusual in that it is a "cuckoo" or social parasite that takes over the nests of other bumblebees. Due to habitat loss, Suckley's now mostly survives on public land, where it is still threatened by grazing, over-use of pesticides and fire suppression.
Science
Honey bees could help monitor fertility loss in insects due to climate change
(ScienceDaily/University of British Columbia) Heat can kill sperm cells across the animal kingdom, yet there are few ways to monitor the impact of heat on pollinators like honey bees, who can serve as a bellwether for wider insect fertility losses due to climate change. Now, researchers used a technique called mass spectrometry to analyze sperm stored in honey bee queens and found five proteins that are activated when the queens are exposed to extreme temperatures. "Just like cholesterol levels are used to indicate the risk of heart disease in humans, these proteins could indicate whether a queen bee has experienced heat stress. If we start to see patterns of heat shock emerging among bees, that's when we really need to start worrying about other insects."
Grassland studies, radar-tracked bumblebees offer clues for protecting pollinators
(Horizon) Studying exactly how declining pollinator populations affect biodiversity is a challenge, as is studying any changes to bee behavior and foraging. One way to study an animal’s behavior is to track it. But this is tricky with bumble bees. Unless you use a radar system to pinpoint the position of the bee every few seconds.
Study reveals important flowering plants for city-dwelling honey bees
(Penn State) Trees, shrubs and woody vines are among the top food sources for honey bees in urban environments, according to an international team of researchers. By using honey bees housed in rooftop apiaries in Philadelphia, the researchers identified the plant species from which the honey bees collected most of their food, and tracked how these food resources changed from spring to fall.
Dramatic loss of food plants for insects in Zurich
(EurekAlert/University of Bonn) A team of German and Swiss researchers have demonstrated that the diversity of food plants for insects in Zurich has dramatically decreased over the past 100 years. Overall, all plant communities have become much more monotonous, with just a few dominant common species. This means that bees, flies and butterflies are increasingly deprived of their food base. 250 volunteers helped map the flora and process historical records.
Minnesota wraps up 30-year biological ‘census’
(Minnesota Public Radio) The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is putting the finishing touches on the state's first comprehensive survey of this corner of the earth. Hundreds of scientists have spent more than three decades scouring the state, county by county, for rare and common plants and animals, as well as intact ecosystems that represent the land as it once was. "And what we've found is a mix of not so good news and good news."
The ‘insect apocalypse’ is more complicated than it sounds
(Science News) Taking a big view of the so-called Insect Apocalypse finds some possible winners among the losers, plus a lot of things we don’t know yet. A new look at insect abundance, slanted toward North America and Europe, hints that freshwater residents are overall increasing.
Technology
Israeli farmers deploy pollinating drones to fill Covid-19 labor shortage
(The Jerusalem Post) Date farmers located in the Jordan Valley and Arava have deployed an innovative solution to overcome labor shortages caused by the coronavirus outbreak: aerial pollination using drones. The drone operators are Israeli Blue White Robotics and New York-based Dropcopter, who have successfully tested drone-based palm pollination in recent months at the Arava Institute. The experiment at the desert research facility was carried out in response to declining bee populations. Aerial pollination has become increasingly important due to recent flooding in the Jordan Valley, which has prevented ground pollination in many areas.
One More Thing…
Get in touch with your creative, artistic side. From Darrell Wakelam @DarrellWakelam on Twitter: "Day 33 of my free #Lockdown friendly art ideas is 'Cardboard Bugs'. View them all on my Twitter or at #ArtJumpstart."