[Pollinator] Franklin's bumble bee may be listed as endangered
Sarina Jepsen
sarina at xerces.org
Wed Sep 14 11:45:30 PDT 2011
*/_Press release from UC Davis_/*
Franklin's bumble bee may be listed as endangered
Email this article
<http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/index.php?action=email&article_id=26269>
Date: 2011-09-13
Contact: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Phone: (530) 754-6894
Email: kegarvey at ucdavis.edu <mailto:kegarvey at ucdavis.edu>
Robbin Thorp and Franklin's bumble bee
*Robbin Thorp and Franklin's bumble bee *
DAVIS --- It's good news for the critically imperiled Franklin's bumble
bee, which Robbin Thorp
<http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/PEOPLE/robbinthorp.html> of the
University of California, Davis, has been tracking since 1998.
A petition spearheaded by Thorp and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate
Conservation to list Franklin's bumble bee under the National Endangered
Species Act has moved to the next step in the process, the 12-month
review period. This may lead to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS) listing it as "endangered" and providing protective status.
The bad news: Thorp hasn't seen Franklin's bumble bee since 2006.
"I am still hopeful that Franklin's bumble bee is still out there
somewhere," said Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology. "Over the last
13 years I have watched the populations of this bumble bee decline
precipitously. My hope is this species can recover before it is too late."
Thorp researches the declining population of Franklin's bumble bee,
/Bombus franklini/ (Frison), found only in a narrow range of southern
Oregon and northern California. Its range, a 13,300-square-mile area
confined to Siskiyou and Trinity counties in California, and Jackson,
Douglas and Josephine counties in Oregon, is thought to be the smallest
of any other bumble bee in North America and the world.
Thorp's surveys, conducted since 1998, clearly show the declining
population. Sightings decreased from 94 in 1998 to 20 in 1999 to 9 in
2000 to one in 2001. Sightings increased slightly to 20 in 2002, but
dropped to three in 2003. Thorp saw none in 2004 and 2005; one in 2006;
and none since.
"My experience with the Western bumble bee /(B. occidentalis)/ indicates
that populations can remain 'under the radar' for long periods of time
when their numbers are low," he said. Thorp did not see the Western
bumble bee between 2002-08, but now, although sightings are rare, they
are "consistently encountered."
This year Thorp surveyed the bumble bee's historical sites in southern
Oregon and northern California on five separate trips of several days
each: two in June and one each in July, August and September. "Flowering
and bumble bee phenology were pushed back about a month this year due to
our cold wet spring," he said.
"I managed to see and photograph workers of /B. occidentalis/ at two
sites on my August trip. I had hoped to see males and even a Franklin's
on my last visit in September but, alas, no luck.
"However, flowering was more like mid-August and lots of other species
of worker bumble bees were still foraging," he noted. "Males and new
queens were also on the wing. The new queens will mate and hibernate to
emerge and produce new colonies next year. The old queens and the rest
of this year's colony members will die out soon, as this season winds to
a close."
Thorp and the Xerces Society petitioned USFWS on June 23, 2010, for
endangered status for the bumble bee. Today (Sept. 13) USFWS announced,
"Based on our review, we find that the petition presents substantial
scientific or commercial information indicating that listing this
species may be warranted. Therefore, with publication of this notice we
are initiating a review of the status of the species to determine if ...
Franklin's bumble bee may warrant protection under the U.S. Endangered
Species Act."
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's
oldest and largest global environmental network, named Franklin's bumble
bee "Species of the Day" on Oct. 21, 2010. IUCN placed it on the "Red
List of Threatened Species" and classified it as "critically endangered"
and in "imminent danger of extinction."
Franklin's bumble bee, mostly black, has distinctive yellow markings on
the front of its thorax and top of its head, Thorp said. It has a solid
black abdomen with just a touch of white at the tip, and an inverted
U-shaped design between its wing bases.
"This bumble bee is partly at risk because of its very small range of
distribution," he said. "Adverse effects within this narrow range can
have a much greater effect on it than on more widespread bumble bees."
If it's given protective status, this could "stimulate research into the
probable causes of its decline," said Thorp, an active member of the
Xerces Society. "This may not only lead to its recovery, but also help
us better understand environmental threats to pollinators and how to
prevent them in future. This petition also serves as a wake-up call to
the importance of pollinators and the need to provide protections from
the various threats to the health of their populations."
Thorp hypothesizes that the decline of the subgenus /Bombus/ (including
/B. franklini/ and its closely related /B. occidentalis/, and two
eastern species /B. affinis/ and /B. terricola/) is linked to an exotic
disease (or diseases) associated with the trafficking of commercially
produced bumble bees for pollination of greenhouse tomatoes.
Other threats may include pesticides, climate change and competition
with nonnative bees, according to Xerces Society executive director
Scott Hoffman Black. Said Sarina Jepson, endangered species program
director at the Xerces Society: "Bumble bees play a critical role in
ecosystems as pollinators of wildflowers, as well as many crops. We hope
that the service will ultimately provide Endangered Species Act
protection to this important pollinator."
Named in 1921 for Henry J. Franklin, who monographed the bumble bees of
North and South America in 1912-13, Franklin's bumble bee frequents
California poppies, lupines, vetch, wild roses, blackberries, clover,
sweet peas, horsemint and mountain penny royal during its flight season,
from mid-May through September. It collects pollen primarily from
lupines and poppies and gathers nectar mainly from mints.
According to a Xerces Society press release, bumble bees are declining
throughout the world.
Researchers in Britain and the Netherlands have "noticed a decline in
the abundance of certain plants where multiple bee species have also
declined. For many crops, such as greenhouse tomatoes, blueberries and
cranberries, bumble bees are better pollinators than honey bees, and
some species are produced commercially for their use in pollination. "
Last October Thorp received a 2010-11 Edward A. Dickson Emeriti
Professorship Award, from UC Davis to support his research on the
critically imperiled bumble bee. The objectives of Thorp's research
funded by the Dickson grant are to:
1. Collect bumble bees for disease studies at the University of
Illinois with emphasis on /B. franklini/ (where and when
appropriate so as not to hinder population recovery) and /B.
occidentalis/ and potential reservoir species known to co-occur
with them, all within the historic range of /B. franklini/.
2. Survey for /B. franklini/ and /B. occidentalis/ with emphasis on
/B. franklini/ historical sites.
3. Include observations on population abundance of other species of
bumble bees at monitoring sites for comparison with the two target
species.
4. Monitor floral visitation and track any individuals of /B.
franklini/ and/or /B. occidentalis/ to determine their foraging
behavior, subset of overall habitat used, nest site locations and
acceptance of trap-nest boxes.
Thorp, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, teaches "The Bee
Course" every summer for the American Museum of Natural History of New
York at its field station in Arizona.
The Xerces Society contributed to this news release. See UC Davis
Department of Entomology website for close-up
<http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/franklinbumblebee.html> of
Franklin's bumble bee.
_____________________________________________________________________
*Sarina Jepsen*
Endangered Species Program Director
*The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation*
1971 -- 2011: Forty Years of Conservation!
*We have moved!*
628 NE Broadway, Suite 200, Portland, OR 97232, USA
sarina at xerces.org <mailto:sarina at xerces.org>
Tel: (503) 232-6639, ext. 112
Toll free: 1-855-232-6639, ext. 112
Fax: (503) 233-6794
Cell: (971) 244-3727
The Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit organization that
protects wildlife
through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.
To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work, please
visit www.xerces.org <http://www.xerces.org>
NEW BOOK NOW AVAILABLE:
/Attracting Native Pollinators. Protecting North America's Bees and
Butterflies/
<http://www.xerces.org/announcing-the-publication-of-attracting-native-pollinators/>
_____________________________________________________________________
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