[Pollinator] Robbin Thorp is the recipient of a 2010-11 Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship Award for work on Franklin's bumblebee

[Scott Black]

Good news for Franklin's bumble bee 

 

Date: 2010-10-21
Contact: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Phone: (530) 754-6894
Email: kegarvey at ucdavis.edu 

 Robbin Thorp and Franklin's bumble beeDAVIS - It's good news for Franklin's
bumble bee. 

Native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp
<http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/PEOPLE/robbinthorp.html> , who has been
monitoring the elusive Franklin's bumble bee since 1998, is the recipient of
a 2010-11 Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship Award, University of
California, Davis, to support his research on the critically imperiled
bumble bee. 

And today (Oct. 21) the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) of Gland, Switzerland, the world's oldest and largest global
environmental network, named the insect "Species of the
<http://www.iucnredlist.org/sotdfiles/bombus-franklini.pdf>  Day." The
bumble bee, on the IUCN "Red List of Threatened Species," is classified as
"critically endangered." 

Thorp, a UC Davis emeritus professor of entomology, retired in 1994 but
continues his research on native pollinators and pollinator decline. He is a
noted expert on bumble bees. 

The award memorializes a University of California regent who served longer
than any other regent, from 1913 to 1946. In 1955, Dickson bequeathed an
endowment to support and maintain special annual professorships to be
awarded to retired academic senate faculty members. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. Collaborators at the University of
Illinois are testing that hypothesis. Since 2005, Thorp has collected
numerous samples of bumble bees in Oregon, California and Arizona in
cooperation with this study.

Thorp said he hopes that Franklin's bumble bee will show the same signs of
recovery as B. occidentais. In 2008, he found B. occidentalis on Mt. Ashland
and in 2009, spotted it at both Mount Ashland and Grizzly Peak. "This
suggests the recovery of this species within the historic range of
Franklin's bumble bee," he said. 

On June 23, The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and Thorp
petitioned the the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide an emergency
listing of Franklin's bumble bee under the National Endangered Species Act.
The decision may take six months or more.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. He chairs the Advisory Committee for the
Jepson Prairie Reserve, a vernal pool ecosystem located near Dixon, and is
the newly elected president of the Davis Botanical Society. 

 

 

*************************

Scott Hoffman Black

Executive Director

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Chair

IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Butterfly 

Specialist Group

4828 SE Hawthorne

Portland, OR 97215

Direct line (503) 449-3792

 <https://webmail.integra.net/src/compose.php?send_to=sblack%40xerces.org>
sblack at xerces.org

 

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 < <http://www.xerces.org/>
http://www.xerces.org/>www.xerces.org.

 

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