[Pollinator] 2020 early season Bumble Bee Loses and Mid Season Check in

[Droege, Sam]

All

We have seen a number of groups talk about a very slow spring for bumble bees, at times numbers have appeared so low as to be worrisome.  Clearly some areas (high elevations in Appalachia) were hit hard by an April hard frost and freeze.

So, I would like to get feedback from the community as to what they are finding.  I will leave it to you as to whether you email me directly or the whole group.  Will compile results next week.

Am interested in positive (or neutral) results as well as negative.

Am interested, in particular, of any notions regarding B. affinis among your more general observations.  We will do a summary of B. affinis status at the end of the season too, but good to know if there appears to be a particular crash of this species now.

There are parallels in the Butterfly world and I include below a quote from Rick Borchelt who has the pulse of Mid-Atlantic populations.

"I've spent a good bit of time in Garrett & Allegany this season, and it has been pretty depauperate of butterflies, especially the bee-analog types that are avid nectarers (Satyrium hairstreaks in particular come to mind, which have been practically absent this year).  Whites and sulphurs have been hard to come by from Frederick west.  The reports from the Shenandoah and other Appalachian spine annual counts have been pretty abysmal.  For butterflies we think it was a combination of drought stressed larval forage last summer/fall, a warm winter (which promotes predator and disease build up), and that early warm spring that came to a screeching halt with very sharp freezes well into the Piedmont and lots and lots of heavy rains.  You could even see freeze effects on pink lady's-slippers in Garrett, which were blackened and collapsed.  Multivoltine species like grass skippers are building back well, but some of the large ones  -- Eastern Tigers, for example, the greater fritillaries -- are probably going to have a suppressed season all 'round."

Thanks everyone.

sam
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