This video is called Solitary bee just emerged and taking first flight.
From the American Museum of Natural History:
Bee species outnumber mammals and birds combinedBees in Zealand: here.Newly completed checklists from the American Museum of Natural History highlight the importance of these pollinators
Scientists have discovered that there are more bee species than previously thought. In the first global accounting of bee species in over a hundred years, John S. Ascher, a research scientist in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, compiled online species pages and distribution maps for more than 19,200 described bee species, showcasing the diversity of these essential pollinators. This new species inventory documents 2,000 more described, valid species than estimated by Charles Michener in the first edition of his definitive The Bees of the World published eight years ago.
“The bee taxonomic community came together and completed the first global checklist of bee names since 1896,” says Ascher. “Most people know of honey bees and a few bumble bees, but we have documented that there are actually more species of bees than of birds and mammals put together.”
The list of bee names finished by Ascher and colleagues was placed online by John Pickering of the University of Georgia through computer applications that linked all names to Discover Life species pages, a searchable taxonomic classification for all bees, and global maps for all genera and species. Ascher and colleagues recently reviewed all valid names from his checklist and from those of experts from all over the world for the World Bee Checklist project led by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and available online (www.itis.gov).
The bee checklists were developed as a key component of the Museum’s Bee Database Project initiated in 2006 by Ascher and Jerome G. Rozen, Jr., Curator of bees at the Museum, and with technical support from Curator Randall Schuh. A primary goal of this project is to document floral and distributional records for all bees, including now obscure species that may someday become significant new pollinators for our crops. The vast majority of known bee species are solitary, primitively social, or parasitic.
These bees do not make honey or live in hives but are essential pollinators of crops and native plants. Honey is made by nearly 500 species of tropical stingless bees in addition to the well-known honey bee Apis mellifera. Honey bees are the most economically important pollinators and are currently in the news because of colony collapse disorder, an unexplained phenomenon that is wiping out colonies throughout the United States.
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The crises facing traditionally managed pollinators like honey bees highlight the need for more information about bee species and their interactions with the plants they pollinate. The National Academy of Sciences identified improved taxonomic data on bees as a high priority, and the new online bee checklists, maps, and other databases have for the first time made comprehensive data readily accessible. The checklists compiled by Ascher and colleagues facilitate ongoing databasing of the Museum’s worldwide collections of more than 400,000 bee specimens, research that was possible due to the generous support of Robert G. Goelet, Chairman Emeritus of the Museum’s Board of Trustees. The Discover Life bee checklist can be accessed at www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Apoidea_species. The valid names in this checklist were peer-reviewed as a contribution to the World Bee Checklist (www.itis.gov), a just-completed project coordinated by Michael Ruggiero of the Integrated Taxonomic Information System at the Smithsonian Institution, with technical support by David Nicolson of ITIS. The World Bee Checklist Project and development of collaborative tools for a planned dynamic catalog received funding from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII). For additional credits, see here.
2008-07-30 12:00
Pesticides blamed for bee massacre
Situation in Italy approaching critical levels, expert says
(ANSA) - Rome, July 30 - The widespread use of pesticides is decimating Italy’s honeybee population and costing millions of euros in lost crops, beekeepers and farmers warned on Tuesday. The Union of Italian Beekeepers (UNAAPI) and leading agricultural association Coldiretti both sounded the alarm over a mass die-off among Italian bees over the last year that would cost farmers 2.5 billion euros. Referring to a ‘’silent epidemic'’, UNAAPI said between 40% and 50% of Italy’s honeybees had vanished since the start of last year. ‘’A group of comparatively new pesticides called neonicotinoids are killing the bees,'’ said UNAAPI President Francesco Panella. ‘’These substances were irresponsibly authorized by public powers that bowed to pressure from the chemical industry'’.
Recalling that Italian agriculture uses over a third of all pesticides applied in Europe, he added: ‘’Bees are extremely fragile. ‘’They are excellent indicators of levels of toxicity in the environment. What they tell us should be taken on board with great concern for the survival of future generations'’. UNAAPI accepts that drought and disease have also played a role in the mysterious die-off but insists that the key suspect is a seed treatment using neonicotinoids, an artificial form of nicotine.
A number of studies have linked neonicotinoids to die-offs in bee colonies. Some have suggested the insecticide leads bees to stop feeding larvae and results in a breakdown of their navigational abilities.
Although scientific conclusions have been mixed, Germany banned the use of all neonicotinoid-based pesticides two months ago, while France imposed strict limits on their use on bee crops following mass die-offs in the 1990s.
The pro-technology agricultural association FUTURAGRA, however, rejected claims that neonicotinoids were to blame and stressed that banning the new pesticide would cause serious harm to maize harvests.
Comment by Administrator — July 30, 2008 @ 5:36 pm
By Sue Pike
August 13, 2008 6:00 AM
I need to start this column with a confession. I’ve never actually seen the animal that I’m about to write about. My neighbors have, and they’ve shown me the evidence of its presence: neat, cylindrical holes in the outer beams and siding of their homes drilled by an insect known as the carpenter bee.
With more than 3,000 species of bees in North America alone, the diversity of life cycle, appearance and behavior of bees is simply enormous.
So, I consulted on this column with an entomologist friend, Andrew Creed of Newburyport, Mass., who has an extravagant fondness for our native pollinating insects.
Carpenter bees are big black bees, the size of a bumblebee. They can be fearsome to encounter outside. The males, who don’t have stingers and can’t hurt you, appear to be curious about humans, often swooping in to get a closer look, a maneuver with an alarming resemblance to dive-bombing.
A fun way to distract an inquisitive male is to toss a bee-sized pebble — they’ll chase it, thinking it is another bee. The female has a stinger, but rarely attacks.
Carpenter bees are solitary insects; unlike honey bees, they do not form colonies. Rather, in the spring, each female carpenter bee prepares her nest by excavating a neat round hole in almost any soft wood — cedar, pine and fir trees, structural timbers, fence poles, lawn furniture, wood siding, you name it. Some sun exposure to keep the nest nice and warm also helps. They will also use old nest holes whenever possible, since constructing these tunnels takes time and energy. Unlike carpenter ants, carpenter bees don’t eat the wood, feeding upon nectar and pollen instead. Their tunnels can extend from inches to feet into wooden structures; new tunnels are often added to old ones, and multiple bees, with separate “apartments,” will sometimes share a common entrance.
Once the tunnel has been dug, the female forms a series of brood cells by depositing a lump of pollen and nectar at one end of a cell, lays an egg on this food ball, and then blocks off the cell with a plug of chewed-up wood. She’ll lay from six to 10 eggs and then die.
The eggs soon hatch into larvae, which feed on the pollen/nectar ball, metamorphose into pupae and then into adults. The new adults chew their way out of the brood cells and out of the tunnels, usually emerging in late August. Just in time for all those late-summer wildflowers. These newly emerged adults spend the rest of the summer feeding and storing pollen in their old tunnel, using the tunnel as a hibernaculum for the winter.
The following spring, the adults emerge, mate, lay their eggs and die, completing the cycle.
The reason my neighbors introduced me to carpenter bees in the first place was to find out how to keep them from burrowing into their houses without having to resort to poisons and other forms of insect murder. The safest, most humane way to keep these bees from choosing your home for their home is to paint any exposed wooden surface. If bees still burrow, you may have to resort to use of a stronger barrier — screening or flashing under the paint. You can also lure bees to other sites by propping up alluring bare wood in various locations around your property.
For my part, as the end of August approaches, I look forward to finally seeing a carpenter bee. That old maxim “the more you learn, the less you know” is so true. There is such a wonderful diversity of plant and animal life in our back yards just waiting for us to open our eyes and discover it.
Sue Pike of York has worked as a researcher and a teacher in biology, marine biology and environmental science for years. She teaches at York County Community College and St. Thomas Aquinas High School. She may be reached at spike@maine.rr.com.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/LIFE/808130348/-1/rss08
Comment by Administrator — August 14, 2008 @ 12:14 am