[Pollinator] USGS: It's National Pollinator Week -- The Buzz on Native Bees (Slideshow, Podcast Links, Research on Native Bees)

[Puckett, Catherine]

[image: USGS - Science for a changing
world]<http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/printemail/www.usgs.gov>
The Buzz on Native Bees
*This Science Feature and a slideshow of amazingly spectacular native bees
can be found at: *
*
*
*http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/the-buzz-on-native-bees/*

Categories: Ecosystems<http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/science_feature/ecosystems/>
, Featured<http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/science_feature/featured_features/>

*
*
By: Hannah Hamilton,
hhamilton at usgs.gov<https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=hhamilton@usgs.gov>

*It’s National Pollinator Week, and ecosystems – whether agricultural,
urban, or natural –*depend on pollinators, great and small. Pollinators in
the form of bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles provide vital, but
often invisible, services from supporting terrestrial wildlife and plant
communities to supporting healthy watersheds. USGS and federal partners are
studying native bees and their behaviors at selected sites across the
country.

*Bevy of Bees*
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/7496919530/in/set-72157630468783226/>

Bombus griseocollis, Queen, South Dakota, USA, Badlands

Bees are nearly ubiquitous, occurring on every continent except Antarctica.
Wherever there are insect-pollinated flowering plants — forest, farms,
cities and wildlands — there are bees. And just because you don’t see
plants blooming, does not mean that there are no bees around. There are
nearly 20,000 known bee species in the world, and 4,000 of them are native
to the United States. From the tiny and solitary *Perdita minima,* known as
the world’s smallest bee, to the large carpenter bee, to the brilliant blue
of the mason bee; native bees come in a variety of shapes, sizes and
colors<http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/mason_bees.shtml>.
 And all these bees have jobs, as pollinators

*Providing Ecosystem Services*

Native bees pollinate native plants like cherries, blueberries and
cranberries, and were here long before European honeybees were brought to
the country by settlers. Honeybees, of course, are well known for
pollinating almond and lemon trees, okra, papaya and watermelon plants. But
native bees are estimated to pollinate 80 percent of flowering plants
around the world. And none of them sting – really!

According to the USDA, bees of all sorts pollinate approximately 75 percent
of the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in the United States, and one out
of every four bites of food people take is courtesy of bee pollination. In
sum, bee pollination is responsible for more than $15 billion in increased
crop value each year.

Bees are vegetarians who descended from wasps about 125 million years ago
when the first flowering plants evolved. Some wasps switched from hunting
prey to gathering pollen, evolving to become bees. Bees feed on both nectar
and pollen – the nectar is for energy, and the pollen provides protein and
other nutrients. Most pollen is used by bees as larvae food, but bees also
transfer it from plant-to-plant providing the pollination services needed
by plants and nature as a whole.
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/7516991810/sizes/z/in/set-72157630468783226/>

Anthophora occidentalis, male, Badlands National Park, June 2012

*Home Sweet Home*

**Most native bees build nests and provide food for their offspring, but
about 20-25 percent have gone the way of the cuckoo birds, laying their
eggs in the nests of others. Aside from the “cuckoo” bees, all bees build
nests, and stock them with pollen and nectar before laying their eggs.
Some, like the sweat bee, build nests underground while others choose
hollow stems or holes in trees, like the leafcutter bee.

*Got Bees? USGS Does*

The USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring
Program<http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/nativebees/>
* *designs and develops large- and small-scale surveys for native bees. As
part of the program they also provide the first-ever comprehensive
identification
tools and keys <http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/nativebees/Keys.html> for North
American native bee species. Established in 2004, the program has made
advances in bee monitoring, and developed and tested survey techniques that
were incorporated into the bee manual, “The Very Handy Manual: How to Catch
and Identify Bees and Manage a
Collection<http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/nativebees/Handy%20Bee%20Manual/Handy%20Bee%20Manual.pdf>
.”

Program scientists have also devised a technique for collecting and
processing native bee specimens for the inventory, as well as having
developed an easy-to-use permanent monitoring technique that will be
deployed nationally in 2014. The program also manages the world’s
largest international
listserv of bee monitoring and
identification<http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/beemonitoring/>
.

USGS and its partners have conducted native bee inventories at more than
100 national parks, wildlife refuges and forests; and nearly 1000
super-high resolution public domain images of bees and wasps are available
online. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/> The program’s native bee
database of approximately 250,000 collection records of bees and wasps
rivals that of the largest museums. Records can be viewed at the
Discoverlife <http://www.discoverlife.org/> and Encyclopedia of
Life<http://eol.org/> websites.
Even with all that is being learned about native bees, native bee
researchers still face challenges.
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/8354392738/sizes/z/in/photostream/>

Halictus ligatus, Morris Arboretum, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, covered in
pollen from an unknown plant

*Population Declines: Beyond Honey Bees*

Colony collapse disorder, the cause of which is unknown, affects only
European honeybees and has been recorded across the county. The primary
symptom of the disorder is having no or low numbers of adult honeybees
present in a hive; no dead honeybees are present, but a queen is. Immature
bees will be present and honey will still be in the hive. Fortunately,
colony collapse disorder does not affect native bees, though some native
bees and other pollinators are also experiencing population declines and
range reductions. Native bee species are being affected by at least some of
the same factors affecting honeybees such as habitat loss and fragmentation
as well as the use of pesticides.

*What can you do for native bees?*

To increase or improve habitat for native bees, plant a diversity of pollen
and nectar sources native to your area that bloom at various times during
the year. Native plants and native pollinators have mutually adapted over
the millennia. Many native bee species are pollen specialists and need to
provide their young with pollen from native plants, so providing native
plants will increase the diverse community of native bee species. If
possible, avoid use of pesticides and provide a source of pesticide-free
water, and mud, which is used as a nesting material by some bee species.
You can also provide nesting habitat for native bees by rototilling a bare
spot in the lawn or garden for soil-nesting bees, leaving standing dead
trees, which will provide housing for native bees, or  building a bee
house. For more tips, listen to our podcast, Bees are Not Optional.
-------------------------------------------------------
Catherine Puckett
USGS Office of Communications
352-377-2469 (O)  352-278-0165 (cell)
cpuckett at usgs.gov
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