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Entomology
Bee Spotters
You can help track elusive honey bees and bumble bees.
A University of Illinois professor famous for studying bees is asking state residents to help her latest endeavor: Tracking them.
Entomology professor and department head May Berenbaum, who recently testified to Congress about bee colony collapse disorder, has launched the BeeSpotter website to build a better record of wild honey bees and bumble bees in Illinois. Any state resident can access the site to identify local bees, post photographs, and enter geographic information about wild bees they see in backyards, parks, or other Illinois locales.
The idea emerged after a recent study released by the National Research Council committee, which Berenbaum chaired, reported that scientists have too little information on North American pollinator abundance and distribution.
The BeeSpotter website provides biographies of the honey bee and each of the 12 species of bumble bees in Illinois. It includes a summary of the status of North American pollinators, with visual keys for identifying bees and distinguishing them from other insects.
Berenbaum says the United States's failure to adequately track its pollination resources is a serious oversight. Ninety U.S. crops depend on a single species of pollinator, and other crops depend on other pollinators, she says.
There are too few pollination experts in the U.S. to bridge the data gap, she says, which is why she wants assistance from residents. Bee spotters will also be able to interact with experts in the field who will answer their questions and connect them to other resources, such as the Illinois Natural History Survey database of North American bees.
Content will be added later to the website, including information about the honey bee genome, the economic impact of bees, how to avoid and treat bee stings, and how to build a bee-friendly garden.
By Dave Evensen
November
2007
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