A rare species of bumblebee was rediscovered in Scotland after 50 years. And now, despite huge declines in North American bumblebee populations, the University of California, Riverside scientists have rediscovered the single most rarest bumblebee in the United States over 55 years since the last specimen was found. It is known as "Cockerell's Bumblebee.”
"Most bumblebees in the U.S. are known from dozens to thousands of specimens, but not this species," said Douglas Yanega, senior museum scientist at UC Riverside. "The area it occurs in is infrequently visited by entomologists, and the species has long been ignored because it was thought that it was not actually a genuine species, but only a regional color variant of another well-known species."
The U.S. is home to nearly 50 native bumblebee species, some of which really are at risk of extinction. The Franklin's bumblebee, for example, hasn't been seen since 2003, and it's one of four U.S. species that have suffered "catastrophic declines" in the past decade, according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
Several other U.S. bumblebees are also in decline, a mysterious trend that's often overshadowed by the similar loss of U.S. honeybees. Although the reasons for both problems remain unclear, studies have pointed to pesticides, habitat loss, climate change and competition from non-native bees.
But while U.S. bumblebees are at risk overall, Yanega thinks Cockerell's bumblebee is stable for now. "Given that this bee occurs in an area that's largely composed of National Forest and Apache tribal land," he says, "it's unlikely to be under serious threat of habitat loss at the moment." And it's not unusual for a species to disappear and reappear like this, he adds, especially if it's an obscure bug. "When an insect species is very rare, or highly localized, it can fairly easily escape detection for very long periods of time. ... It is much harder to give conclusive evidence that an insect species has gone extinct than for something like a bird or mammal or plant."
Source:
"Most bumblebees in the U.S. are known from dozens to thousands of specimens, but not this species," said Douglas Yanega, senior museum scientist at UC Riverside. "The area it occurs in is infrequently visited by entomologists, and the species has long been ignored because it was thought that it was not actually a genuine species, but only a regional color variant of another well-known species."
The U.S. is home to nearly 50 native bumblebee species, some of which really are at risk of extinction. The Franklin's bumblebee, for example, hasn't been seen since 2003, and it's one of four U.S. species that have suffered "catastrophic declines" in the past decade, according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
Several other U.S. bumblebees are also in decline, a mysterious trend that's often overshadowed by the similar loss of U.S. honeybees. Although the reasons for both problems remain unclear, studies have pointed to pesticides, habitat loss, climate change and competition from non-native bees.
But while U.S. bumblebees are at risk overall, Yanega thinks Cockerell's bumblebee is stable for now. "Given that this bee occurs in an area that's largely composed of National Forest and Apache tribal land," he says, "it's unlikely to be under serious threat of habitat loss at the moment." And it's not unusual for a species to disappear and reappear like this, he adds, especially if it's an obscure bug. "When an insect species is very rare, or highly localized, it can fairly easily escape detection for very long periods of time. ... It is much harder to give conclusive evidence that an insect species has gone extinct than for something like a bird or mammal or plant."
Source:
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/rare-us-bumblebee-rediscovered
