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Jason Gibbs / Magnolia Press
Lasioglossum gotham, also known as the gotham bee, is one of 11 newly identified bee species.
One researcher has identified 11 new species of sweat bees, including a bug named in honor of Gotham City — but in a sense, these bees aren't new at all. They've probably been right under our noses all this time.
The new identifications were made by Cornell entomologist Jason Gibbs by checking dead-bee collections and conducting DNA tests. Species names and descriptions were published last month in the journal Zootaxa as part of a reshuffling of the family tree for 97 species of sweat bees. Gibbs said there may be thousands of bee species yet to be identified.
"This highlights the need for additional studies of our major pollinators," and not just honeybees, he told me.
One bee may look like another, but there can be subtle morphological and genetic differences that set them apart. If the bees are so dissimilar that they can't breed with each other, they're considered separate species. Mitochondrial DNA tests provide a reliable way to map out species relationships by revealing how long ago particular strains of creatures diverged. "These bees are morphologically and genetically distinct enough that you can say with confidence that they are their own species," Gibbs explained in a Cornell Chronicle interview.
Sweat bees are so named because they get some of their sustenance from licking the sweat off our skin. They nest in the ground or in tree cavities. Four of the species that Gibbs identified are "cuckoo bees," which have lost the ability to build their own nests and collect pollen. These species lay their eggs in the nests of other bees, which end up raising the invaders' progeny. That's the same sort of trick cuckoos pull in the bird world. (Gibbs named one of the cuckoo-bee species Lasioglossum izawsum, which is awesome.)
Four of the species were found in the New York City area, including a specimen that was collected at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in 2009. That species was named Lasioglossum gotham, which led The New York Times to declare that the Big Apple "has a bee to call its own." Sure, Gotham may be one of New York's nicknames, but if you want to think of L. gotham as the "Batman bee" instead, no one's going to stop you.
The species names for the nine other newly identified strains are arantium, ascheri, batya, curculum, furunculum, georgeickworti, katherineae, rozeni and trigeminum. Some of these labels echo the names of other bee researchers: Cornell's George Eickwort, for example, or John Ascher and Jerome Rozen of the American Museum of Natural History. It was Ascher who found L. gotham and passed it along to Gibbs for identification. The Times reported that L. katherineae was identified by analyzing a dead bee that had been sitting in a drawer at the museum since 1903.
The fact that the list of bee species is a little longer than it used to be doesn't mean that the widely publicized crisis besetting the bees is over. Honeybees have been hard-hit by a mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, which experts suspect is caused by a combination of mites, parasites, viruses and pesticides. Bumblebees are having problems, too.
"This discovery doesn't counter the idea that bees are declining," Gibbs told me. "What it points out is that there are a lot of species we don't enough about to say whether they're at a stable level."
Identifying the wide variety of bee species just might be the first step toward identifying the factors that keep some populations healthy while others are put at risk. "Even though these bees were only recently described, we can go back to the collections by digitizing records, and start comparing modern abundances," Gibbs said.
More about the bees:
- Big mystery surrounds bees' tiny foe
- New bee viruses found attacking healty hives
- Bees feel the sting of huge population plunge
- Four bumblebee species declining in North America
Gibbs' research was supported by the Canadian Barcode of Life Network through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Genome Canada, and the National Science Foundation. Gibbs was a researcher at York University in Toronto for a time while working on the study, which explains the Canadian connection.
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The topic of CCD is a close one to me and I went to the experts to find out more. As an author-journalist I interviewed scientists at UC Davis (Dr. Eric Mussen), the editor of the Bee Culture Magazine, and beekeepers from coast to coast. There are a wide variety of theories, they told me, and some not mentioned in this article. The thing is, if the honey bee becomes extinct it will affect our planet and mankind as we know it. The diversity and quantity of our food chain would be greatly affected. And note, the honey bee pollinates about one-third of the food we consume (including nutritious fruits and nuts).
author of The Healing Powers of Honey (Kensington, October 2011) Cal Orey
The fate of the Honey Bee is so critical to food production that they should “spend the money” to construct and maintain a gigantic arboretum or greenhouse in say an airplane hangar, enclosed coliseum or whatever, …… stock it full of Honey Bee loving plants …. and 10 to 20 Honey Bee hives obtained from beekeepers that are experiencing the effects of CCD.
Given the above said “controlled environment”, any continuing effect of CCD should provide researchers plenty of dead bees for autopsies to discover the cause of their demise …… instead of said researchers just
guessing as to what that cause might bee, …. pun intended.
That insect in the photo is NOT a bee, it is a WASP, or HORNET if you will. I've seen too many of them over the years as well as different species of bees, honey bees, wood bees, bumble bees, etc. Big difference.
gunman
What makes you say that?
Have you ever seen a velvet ant?
I said that because I have seen them, all of those indicated in the comment. Look at the body of that insect in the photo and then look at photos of wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and then look at the bodies of bees. As I said I have seen them all and know the difference. As far as that ant you mentioned I have never heard of such. I know black ants, red ants and fire ants but not a velvet ant.
That is a bee...leave it up to genetics...
Wasps/hornets have thinner, longer thoraxes and are not hairy. They also have a smooth or unbarbed stinger.
Bees are hairy and have a barbed stinger that is avulsed after stinging, causing them to die.
The picture meets the characteristic of a bee. Furthermore, I would think a scientist knows the difference.
The velvet ant is a wingless wasp: "
Mutillidae are a family of more than 3,000 species of wasp whose wingless females resemble ants. Their common name velvet ant refers to their dense pile of hair which most often is bright scarlet or orange but may also be black, white, silver, or gold. Their bright colours serve as aposematic signals. They are known for their extremely painful sting, facetiously said to be strong enough to kill a cow, hence the common name cow killer or cow ant is applied to some species. Unlike a real ant, they do not have drones, workers, and queens. However, velvet ants do exhibit haplodiploid sex determination similar to other members of Vespoidea (JH Hunt 1999). Retrieved from
Contents
This is interesting. Just a few days ago, I caught a bug in my house, something I initially thought was a bumblebee. But a closer look revealed that it had a slighter frame than a bumblebee, and no stripes (just a faintly yellow thorax). I haven't checked to see if it's a well-known species, but the only bees I see in my area are bumblebees (everything else is a red wasp or yellow jacket or something similar).
My husband and I were bee keepers for years, at least 13 years. We had to stop because it got so expensive to replace the colony's every year, a pound of bees went from $35 a pound to $65. The other problem is the feral bees are almost gone and will not be back for decades. I don't know what caused the collapse but it will be devastating. I have only read one article about a researcher trying to develop a gene pool of collapse-resistant bees. She better hurry, time is running out. The pathetic part of this is even if she does succeed, the environment is teetering on the brink of un-fixable and it won't matter if there are bees or not.
So Where Have All the Honey Bees Gone--and Will It Affect Mankind?
Q. How will the die-off of the honey bee affect our food chain?
A. Millions of acres of U.S. fruit, vegetable, oilseed, and legume crops depend on insect pollination—and that includes the sacred honey bees. This little insect gives human gifts from the hive but also helps pollinate our crops, home gardens, and wildlife habitat. And don’t forget most beef and dairy products enjoyed in the United States count on insect-pollinated legumes, such as alfalfa and clover. Worse, if the bee disappears our food chain would decline in diversity and quantity, and images of the futuristic doomsday films without fresh food like Soylent Green and The Road could become a grave reality.
Q. What are scientists doing about CCD?
A. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is trying to help get a handle on Colony Collapse Disorder. In 2010 it dished out $6 million in emergency assistance to beekeepers who had lost their bees. And scientists are busy at work trying to discover what exactly is causing the vanishing of honey bees.
California bee expert Dr. Eric Mussen of UC Davis says, “None of us know why the bees are not as vital as they used to be. In many cases this may be due to limited access to a good varied supply of pollens.” He hopes in our lifetime
scientists will discover what is killing the honey bees. “But,” he adds, “even if we find the cause, will we be able to overcome it?”
Q. What can you do to help keep the honey bee alive and well?
A. Devote a portion of your property to growing annual and perennial plants the bloom consecutively over the whole season that honey bees are collecting nectar and pollens for food. Reduce the pesticides of all kinds to a minimum. In areas with extended dry periods, supply fresh water in a way so that visiting bees don’t become a nuisance. Consider donating funds to bee researchers around the country who are trying to determine the cause of CCD and what can be done to bolster the bee populations. Support honey bee research at UC Davis:
http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/HAVEN/haagendazshbh.pdf
(Excerpt from The Healing Powers of Honey by Cal Orey, published by Kensington)
Thank you for the info, Callie.
You don't realize just how important something so small can be, until it's gone or nearly gone.
I warned my ex-wife about that just before we separated.
I think colony collapse is caused by invisible, magnetic earth changes as opposed to a toxin or virus.
Magnetic earth changes is an interesting theory that could be linked to CCD. Or not. I was taught by geologist Jim Berkland that animals get disoriented before earthquakes because of changes in the magnetic field. We're talking pigeons, dolphins, whales, cats, dogs and even humans. I explain in it in detail in my book The Man Who Predicts Earthquakes. So yes, I do believe, Ellen, you may be onto something. You're hardly alone in this theory.
Cal Orey, www.calorey.com
MONSANTO's enemy is the bee. Monsanto will destroy the bee. the government will help MONSANTO kill all the bees. look at obamas cabinet. monsanto execs. the world is screwed. monsanto must die
Monsanto = FDA = Big Agra = Big Pharma = Big Energy =our government
Yes they want complete control over the sheeples. Give you shots and Ecoli laced GMO food to make you sick and then chew you up and spit you out the hospital. Flouride in your water. Chem trails in your air. In debt you all your generations from here until eternity. Taxation without representaion. Now be a good slave and check into your nearest FEMA Camp!
And yes, it's either the new pesticides or the chem trails that are decimating the bees.
Quote of the Day
"In the last decade, it has become routine to combine genes from different sources - often different species - in test tubes, and then transfer this recumbinant DNA into living cells, where it can be replicated and expressed. E. coli is often used because it is easy to grow and its biochemistry is well understood.
Since no hybrid crops or animals have ever been tested for safety ...before they were marketed, it is argued that genetically engineered organisms (GMO) need not be treated differently. In general, the FDA has held that if the result of genetic engineering is not significantly different from a product already on the market, testing is not required."
Biology 3rd Edition by Campbell
What politician traded favors with his co-harts and got that bill passed? After all, it probably only cost the tax payers 17 billion dollars. Money well spent while so many people are hurting.
A senator said on tv this morning, present taxes are not the problem, spending is!!!~~
Uh, wrong article?
My dad is a beekeeper. A few years ago, we experienced the colony collapse, but right now after focusing on getting rid of the mites, his business is starting to really expand. But I thank God for all of that.
Whether the cause of CCD is a mite, a virus or a shift in
the solar frequency they use for navigation ….. I really don’t think that is
actually what is killing them.
Me thinks the actual “killing off” of the bees is that they
leave the hive to go foraging for pollen ……… and simply can’t navigate their
way back to their hive. Thus they become “lost in the wilderness” and die of
starvation and/or exposure.
And that is why very few if any dead bees are found inside or in close proximately to the hive(s).
Now only if they could make a honey bee without a stinger that would be great. But then the last time anyone screwed with bees it turned into a problem(killer bee's).
Nice to hear after all the doom and gloom all the bees are disappearing and mass extinctions are taking place fear stories that the media has been reporting.
Yet no one has ever been able to come up with a list of species that have supposedly gone extinct in recent times due to hype like man made global warming.
But new species keep getting discovered all the time.