Fruit Bites for Sept 7 & 9 ... Rare Bees

BL: Welcome back to another “Fruit Bites” brought to you by Valent U.S.A. Back with us again is Valent’s Allison Walston. And this week Allison, we’re focused on a newly discovered rare bee species.

AW: There was this amazing article about a 4-year-old girl finding, not one but 2 colonies of a rare bee that had been brought into the US over 70 years ago.

BL: Really? How did she find out they were rare?

AW: Annika’s caregiver is a biologist and helped send the unrecognizable bees out for identification.

BL: So, what kind of bee are they?

AW: A genus of bee called Plebeia. They are small, stingless with shiny black and yellow bodies. It took quite a bit of sleuthing to figure out the story of how these bees came from Brazil to Palo Alto. The bees had been sent in 1950 to evaluate the potential for increasing pollination and fruit set. 30 colonies were shipped across the US and were all thought to have perished. A huge thanks to junior entomologist Annika and all the citizen scientists out there making great observations!

BL: Well, thanks Allison. Join us again next time for more Fruit Bites, brought to you by Valent. Until then, I’m Bob Larson.

https://baynature.org/2021/06/03/new-colony-of-a-rare-stingless-bee-once-presumed-absent-from-california-found-by-a-four-year-old-in-palo-alto/