(Annals of the Entomological Society of America) “Effective monitoring is necessary to provide robust detection of bee declines. In the United States and worldwide, bowl traps have been increasingly used to monitor native bees and purportedly detect declines. However, bowl traps have a suite of flaws that make them poorly equipped to monitor bees.”
(University of California, Riverside) When you think of California in the 1970s, maybe you think of hippies, Fleetwood Mac, or skateboards. But if you’re an entomologist, you might think of all the natural spaces that have since been devoured by urbanization and wonder what happened to the native bees that lived in them. An assistant professor of entomology has embarked on a project to figure out how habitat destruction has affected native bees in California by resampling sites first studied in the 1970s.
(Minnesota Public Radio) The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is putting the finishing touches on the state’s first comprehensive survey of this corner of the earth. Hundreds of scientists have spent more than three decades scouring the state, county by county, for rare and common plants and animals, as well as intact ecosystems that represent the land as it once was. “And what we’ve found is a mix of not so good news and good news.”
(Jeremy Hemberger) The chaos brought about by the global coronavirus pandemic has not only claimed lives, it has disrupted experiments in labs across the world. Some scientists can thankfully carry on their pieces of work at home or in back yards, including those of us who study bumble bees. This post lays out the supplies needed to rear bumble bees on a budget at home, how to capture and install queens, providing colonies optimal conditions, and some hints that might make troubleshooting issues easier.
(The Bee Report) The novel coronavirus is affecting every aspect of our lives in ways big and small, obvious and unpredictable. How will it affect plans for bee research this year? Based on the response to this survey, here is how things are looking in the U.S. and Canada.
(Entomology Today) If you’ve tried using a macro lens to photograph arthropods in the field, you know it can be far more challenging than shooting in the lab or studio. As the lens gets closer to the subject, a movement of even 1 millimeter can throw your target area out of focus. Here are some tricks we use to obtain sharper, more detailed, and better-composed macrophotographs in the field.
(Chesapeake Bay Program) Near a swampy forest littered with trash, two biologists went searching for insects. A chance of rain had dampened their morning prospects, but with the temperature climbing, the mild afternoon in March held the chance that their target species would be active: ground-nesting bees and tiger beetles. “Sand habitats are a cornerstone of where we go to look for rare things, but also should be the cornerstone of conservation.”
(Entomology Today) Collecting information on insects and other small arthropods is time-consuming and expensive. The methods used to collect arthropods living in the microhabitats of trees can be especially challenging – and destructive. But a group of Israeli researchers have developed a simple and seemingly effective arthropod trap: rolled-up tubes of corrugated cardboard tied to trees with string. They captured numerous types of insects including cockroaches, spiders, wasps and bees.
