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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a
href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070810/LIVING/708100302/1004">http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070810/LIVING/708100302/1004</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:7.5pt;
font-family:Verdana'><img border=0 width=300 height=61 id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:image001.gif@01C7DB68.E10632B0"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</span></font><span class=topstoryheadline><b><span style='font-weight:bold'><!--PRINTER FRIENDLY ARTICLE-->In
Nature: The plight of the native bumblebee</span></b></span><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><br>
<br>
<span class=date>August 10, 2007</span><br>
Madeline Bodin<br>
Special to the Free Press<br>
<br>
In the wooden storage boxes of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Vermont</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>'s insect
collection, there are plenty of examples of a native bumblebee species (Bombus
affinis) that has a black head, broad yellow stripes, and no common name.
Generations of net-wielding undergrads added fresh specimens to the
university's collection up until the 1990s. <br>
<br>
Since 1999, however, and in spite of searching across fields and through
forests, Leif Richardson, a Vermont-based bumblebee researcher, hasn't seen a
single member of that species. He knows of four other once-common <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vermont</st1:place></st1:State> bumblebee
species that have all but disappeared from the state as well. <br>
<br>
Bumblebees and honeybees have experienced sharp declines recently. News reports
of late have focused on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a mysterious syndrome
that has killed off as many as 90 percent of the honeybees in some beekeepers'
hives in 35 states, including <st1:State w:st="on">New Hampshire</st1:State>
but not <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vermont</st1:place></st1:State>.
<br>
<br>
But honeybees were in trouble long before CCD struck, and so were native bees,
including many bumblebee species, for a variety of reasons.<br>
<br>
Just to be clear, honeybees are not native to <st1:place w:st="on">North
America</st1:place>. They are, however, what most likely comes to mind when
someone says "bee." There is just one species that answers to the
name honeybee in <st1:place w:st="on">North America</st1:place>: They live in
large hives and produce honey; these days most honeybees are raised primarily
to pollinate crops. <br>
<br>
There are about 4,000 species of native bees in <st1:place w:st="on">North
America</st1:place>, says Stephen Buchmann, international coordinator for the
North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and co-author of the book, The
Forgotten Pollinators. <br>
<br>
Of those native bee species, bumblebees are perhaps the most like honeybees,
which may be one reason why the two are sometimes confused. Most bumblebees are
bigger than honeybees, and fatter. Both kinds of bees are fuzzy and buzzy. <br>
<br>
But bumblebees nest in small colonies in the ground, often in abandoned mouse
or vole holes. They make some honey -- just enough for a rainy day -- but do
not need a large surplus because their colonies don't overwinter as honeybees'
do. <br>
<br>
<st1:City w:st="on">Richardson</st1:City>, whose day job is as the state lands
ecologist at the Vermont Fish and Wildlife's Nongame and Natural Heritage Program,
says there are about 20 species of bumblebees in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Vermont</st1:place></st1:State>. According to the <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">New Hampshire</st1:PlaceName>
insect collection's checklist, there are 16 species in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">New Hampshire</st1:place></st1:State>. <br>
<br>
Bombus fervidus -- another bumblebee species (so few have common names) -- is
also common in the UVM collection, says <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Richardson</st1:place></st1:City>.
New specimens stopped being added to the collection in the 1990s. "I've
looked hard for it, and have rarely seen it," he says. He has spoken to
researchers in the <st1:place w:st="on">Midwest</st1:place>, who have had
little luck finding it. <br>
<br>
Bumblebees are not disappearing from just <st1:State w:st="on">Vermont</st1:State>
and <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Hampshire</st1:place></st1:State>.
It's a continent-wide phenomenon. <st1:City w:st="on">Franklin</st1:City>'s
bumblebee, rare for having a common name as well as for existing only in a
small area in northern <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State> and southern
<st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oregon</st1:place></st1:State>, is
believed to have recently gone extinct. It's one of five bumblebee species,
including B. affinis, that the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has
singled out for having a population in steep decline. <br>
<br>
No one knows what is happening to bumblebees, but most experts are convinced
that loss of habitat, use of pesticides, and the introduction of non-native
parasites are playing important roles in the decline. <br>
<br>
Habitat loss can be extreme, such as when a pasture becomes a shopping center,
or it can be subtle. <st1:City w:st="on">Richardson</st1:City> says Bombus
pensylvanicus requires large grasslands as habitat, and it nests in <st1:State
w:st="on">New Hampshire</st1:State> and <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vermont</st1:place></st1:State>
on the ground in hayfields. It was once common, he says, but he's seen the
species only once. He suspects that intensifying agriculture -- dairy farmers
now cut hay from a single field as often as three times a year -- has led to
its decline. <br>
<br>
In some instances, bumblebees are employed to pollinate greenhouse tomatoes,
since honeybees are incapable of that job. As these bumblebees are commercially
raised and sold around the world, they pick up parasites, such as mites, that
can weaken or kill them. When infected bumblebees escape to the wild, they
bring those parasites to native populations. <br>
<br>
The good news is that scientists like <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Richardson</st1:place></st1:City>
are studying the problem at the local level, giving policy-makers the
information that they badly need. The situation is starting to receive some
national attention as well, says Matthew Shepherd, pollinator conservation
program director for the Xerces Society in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Portland</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Ore.</st1:State></st1:place>
Last autumn, the National Academies of Science released a report describing the
dire state of pollinators in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, including
bumblebees. The report concluded that more research is needed. Congress is now
discussing funding for that research, says Shepherd. <br>
<br>
The U.S. Postal Service celebrated National Pollinator Week on June 24-30 by
releasing a block of stamps depicting native pollinators and wild flowers. One
of the four stamps shows the flower of a purple nightshade being pollinated by
a bumblebee.<br>
Madeline Bodin is a writer who lives in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Andover</st1:place></st1:City>.
This weekly column is produced by Northern Woodlands magazine. A selection of
these columns has been collected in The Outside Story, available at <a
href="http://www.northernwoodlands.org" target="_blank">www.northernwoodlands.org</a>.
Support for this article series is provided by the New Hampshire Charitable
Foundation's Wellborn Ecology Fund: <a href="mailto:wef@nhcf.org">wef@nhcf.org</a>.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'>Jennifer Tsang<br>
<a href="http://coevolution.org">Coevolution Institute</a><br>
<st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">423 Washington St.</st1:address></st1:Street>
5th Fl.<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">CA</st1:State> <st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94111-2339</st1:PostalCode></st1:place><br>
T: 415.362.1137</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'>F: 415.362.3070</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'><a
href="http://www.nappc.org">www.nappc.org</a></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'><a
href="http://www.pollinator.org">www.pollinator.org</a></span></font><font
color="#004000"><span style='color:#004000'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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