Franklin bees may be extinct

Pollinated insect specialist Robbin Thorp, an honor professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, has just returned from a study trip to Southern Oregon, and northern California, to find Franklin's bumblebee. list of seriously threatened animals.

Bad luck. He could not find any bees.

Every year since 1998, Thorp has always made scientific surveys to the restricted distribution area of ​​bumblebee. Each year, he takes 3 to 5 trips lasting several days.

In 1998, he discovered 100 Franklin bees (Bombus franklini). Thorp said: 'This bee is quite popular at the time. It is in the top 10 to 20 species I search for. '

But since 2004, Thorp has only seen one child. 'The last time I saw this bee was in August 2006 in Mt. Ashland, I've seen a single worker bee. '

Franklin's bees are a special black-faced insect, with yellow parts on the chest and above the head. 'It has a completely black abdomen and a black inverted U shape on the yellow chest.'

He worries that Franklin bee bees may be extinct, and other bees are also on the verge of extinction.

Thorp, a member of the California Science Council since 1986, discusses the "technology's desperate situation" from 12:10 to 1 pm on May 27 at 122 Briggs Hall, UC Davis. The discussion is streamed online in the project of entomology professor James Carey of California Davis University, Research Council at the University of California.

Franklin bees may be extinct.(Photo: PhysOrg)

The disappearance, and possibly the extinction of the Franklin bee, which is closely linked to the widespread decline of native North American pollinators, Thorp said, is a concern. of society.'The loss of an indigenous pollinant species can be a significant loss of ecosystems, economics, and food supplies'.

'One of the main reasons for putting Fraklin bumblebee in the current situation is that it has a very small geographical limit. It has the narrowest distribution area compared to other bees in North America and may be globally. The distribution area of ​​the bee lasts 190 miles from North to South and 70 miles from East to West in the area between Southern Oregon and Northern California. '

The known distribution of this species includes Jackson, Douglas and Josephine seeds in Oregon and Siskiyou, as well as Trinity County in California. It lives at altitudes from 540 minutes in the North to 6800 minutes in the South.

Art bee Franklin, named after Henry J. Franklin in 1921, a bee expert in North and South America, often with flowers such as poppies, lupine beans, vetch, wild roses, raspberries, grass three leaves, flower beans, long leaf mint, and pungent peppermint during the feeding season from mid-May to the end of December. It earns pollen mainly from lupine beans and poppies, and earns nectar mainly from silver ha.

Not only Franklin bees are seriously threatened. Western bumblebee (Bombus occidentalis) and two relatives in the East are also at risk of extinction.

Honey bees pollinate about 15% of food crops, with a total value of about $ 3 billion. Wild animals, including birds, elk, deer and bears depend on pollination of fruits, beans and berries for survival.

Thorp concludes: 'We are promoting and changing the habitat of native pollinators'.