Image Source: Screen capture from Ucanr.org.
Robin Thorp, an entomologist at the University of California at Davis, along with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, formally petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the insect under the Endangered Species Act.
Xerces Society executive director, Scott Hoffman Black, explained that the petition is part of an ongoing effort to reverse the decline of bees around the world due to habitat loss, pesticides, disease from commercial greenhouses, and—of course—Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
In addition to those threats, there is a theory that the Franklin’s Bumblebee and other related species have suffered due to a fungus brought from Europe, known as Nosema bombus. University of Illinois researchers are currently working to see if there is any connection between the fungus and the decline of a number of bumblebee species.
Conservation groups are also planning other petitions to protect other bumblebee species, too. The reason the Franklin’s Bumblebee was chosen this time around is because of the severity of its decline, which is more detailed than other species. In 1994, Thorp found 94 of the bees, but has seen none since 2006.
Did you know that bumblebees are used to pollinate farm crops? Yeah, farmers would typically use honeybees (via bee keepers) in the past, but they’ve taken a major blow from CCD. So, they’ve turned to the next best thing: Bumblebees. Apparently, bumblebees are great for pollinating a number of crops, including: tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, blueberries, squash, and watermelon—or up to 15% of all crops grown in the US. However, since bumblebees are also on the decline, pollination may become a more severe issue than people think.
Black explained:
“The decline in Franklin’s Bumblebee should serve as an alarm that we are starting to lose important pollinators. We hope that Franklin’s Bumblebee will remind us to prevent pollinators across the US from sliding toward extinction.”
You can find a full press release and links to further information on the Franklin’s Bumblebee, bumblebee conservation, and the petition here.
By Heidi Marshall