The Affable bumble bee (Bombus affinis) is among the species no longer found in what once was its native habitat. (Johanna James-Heinz photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe second paper investigates the dramatic decline in several North American bumble bee species, particularly the Affable bumble bee (Bombus affinis<\/em>) that has been extirpated along with its social parasite, Bombus ashtoni<\/em>. The Yellow Banded bumble bee (Bombus terricola<\/em>) has declined so precipitously that it too may be on the brink of extinction. Only one of this formerly widespread species has been seen in Connecticut in the last 10 years.<\/p>\nThe authors tested their hypothesis that pathogen spillover from commercially introduced bumble bees \u2013 those used in pollination of commercially grown fruits and vegetables \u2013 caused the declines of three wild species by using a large dataset of bumble bee occurrence along with agricultural census data. In addition to finding support for their initial hypothesis, the researchers also determined that issues such as pesticide use and loss of habitat are not major causes of decline in the species they studied. Thus, it is imperative to determine what currently unknown causes may be responsible for pollinator population losses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese studies are important,\u201d Wagner says, \u201cbecause they look at what\u2019s been happening in the environment over time. We couldn\u2019t do this kind of research without the benefit of the data we\u2019ve accumulated over the years.\u201d Such studies add traction to the arguments that biological collections \u2026 the \u2018dead bugs\u2019 Wagner refers to \u2026 have much to tell us about the consequences of climate change.<\/p>\n
Wagner is part of a National Science Foundation collaborative that is digitizing and sharing data on pollinators. \u201cThere\u2019s a national concern about the decline in pollinators,\u201d he says. \u201cThe NSF is concerned, the USDA is concerned, conservation biologists are concerned \u2026 so this large project involving universities and museums in both the U.S. and Canada is focused on gathering and sharing data on all species of bees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout all this specimen data, we wouldn\u2019t be able to document what happened in the past. We have a good data set going back to the turn of the 20th century. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven has been active in bees, and combining that information with what we have in our collection gives us a pretty good historical record.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact,\u201d Wagner adds, \u201cwe\u2019re hoping to use Connecticut as a benchmark for monitoring change. It\u2019s a tiny state, but we still have over 300 wild bee species. We\u2019ve had one or two [species] that appear to have become extinct within the last 20 years. In our lifetime in Connecticut, we\u2019re starting to lose pollinators. It\u2019s time to raise the clarion call, and we\u2019re literally in one of the best places in the New World to look at faunal change over the last century. For someone with my background and interests, I couldn\u2019t be in a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
‘Dead bugs do tell tales,’ according to biologist David Wagner, who is examining the decline of bee pollinators and the threat of climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":51972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[56],"class_list":["post-51970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 07:27:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51970"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51975,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51970\/revisions\/51975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/51972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51970"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=51970"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=51970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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