The rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) is an important pollinator in North America and a federally listed endangered species. Putting together its genome is part of the Beenome 100 project, a first-of-its-kind effort to create a library of high-quality, highly detailed genome maps of 100 or more diverse bee species found in the United States. […]
Tag: Bumblebee
9 Good Bugs for Your Garden and How to Attract Them
Not all creepy-crawlers are welcome in the garden, but some insects are very beneficial to the success of your flowers, herbs and veggies. According to Almanac, beneficial bugs fall into three categories: pollinators, which help pollinate plants; predators, which feed on garden pests; and parasitizers, like parasitic wasps and other insects that lay eggs inside […]
The World’s Tiniest Bat Is In Big Trouble, But There Could Be Hope
The bumblebee bat, also known as Kitti’s hog-nosed ba is the smallest bat in the world, and has the smallest skull size of any mammal on earth. As TreeHugger reports, the bumblebee bat weighs on average less than .07 ounces and on 1.14 inches long, but the tiny species is at heightened risk from climate […]
Bumblebees Increasingly Stressed by Climate Change Over Past 100 Years, Study Finds
Bumblebees are larger than honeybees and, while they collect and store nectar from flowers to consume themselves, they do not convert nectar into honey like honeybees. Bumblebees are essential pollinators for many wildflowers and agricultural crops like sunflowers, cranberries, blueberries and tomatoes. Two contemporaneous papers examining bumblebee populations in the UK were recently published by […]
Climate stress can give bumblebees asymmetrical wings, study finds
Bumblebees have become increasingly stressed by changes in climate over the past century, researchers examining museum specimens have found. Bees develop asymmetrical wings when they experience stress during development, and by examining a series of preserved specimens and their dates, the scientists found bees showed higher levels of wing asymmetry in hotter and wetter years. […]
The Life of a Solitary Bee
Bee species’ behavior has fascinated humans for eternity. Throughout the world, we watch them buzzing from flower to flower, collecting pollen. From classical songs to company logos and home décor, we have honored their existence. It’s easy for many of us as casual observers to believe that we understand them, but the bee world is […]
The weedkiller glyphosate destroys wild bees’ capability to reproduce the next generation
The weedkiller glyphosate, according to recent research, has affected wild bumblebees’ ability to keep their hives at the right temperature. Glyphosate is the most widely used insecticide on the planet, and it’s just meant to kill plants. Bumblebees, which are vital pollinators, were left out of regulatory risk assessments, which focus solely on whether a […]
Researchers find that bumblebees’ body size could make them more vulnerable in a warming world
According to new research, the climate crisis may result in more small-bodied bees but fewer bumblebees, with potentially “cascading” implications on plant pollination and ecosystems. Over the course of eight years, scientists in the United States trapped and studied more than 20,000 bees in a region of the Rocky Mountains to see how different varieties […]