Where Have All the Bumble Bees Gone?

The Smithsonian Institution is the place to "bee" on Monday, June 22.

UC Davis pollinator specialist and researcher Robbin Thorp will join other bumble bee experts from across the country in a "Plight of the Bumble Bees" public symposium from 10 a.m. to 12:30

The location: Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History. The Smithsonian is located at the corner of 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington D.C.

Thorp will discuss "Western Bumble Bees in Peril." Sydney Cameron and Jeff Lozier of the University of Illinois will examine "The Status and Trends of Midwestern and Southern Bumble Bees." Then Leif Richardson of the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife will cover "Bumble Bee Trends in Northeastern North America."

Other speakers:

• Stephen Buchmann, University of Arizona, "USA Native Bee Diversity: Rarity, Threats and Conservation Ideals"
• Paul Williams, Natural History Museum, London, "A Global View of Bumble Bees and Their Conservation Status."

Michael Ruggiero of the Smithsonian Institution will moderate. He's the senior science advisor of the Smithsonian's Integrated Taxonomic System (ITIS).

Following the symposium, bumble bee experts and other scientists will continue to meet at the Smithsonian for the next two and a half days to discuss concerns about the declining bumble bee population.

The symposium is part of  National Pollinator Week, which starts Monday, June 22 and continues through Sunday, June 28.

Thorp delivered a presentation on Franklin's bumble bee May 27, during one of the UC Davis Department of Entomology's noonhour sessions. Franklin's bumble bee, feared extinct or nearing extinction, is found only in one part of the world:  southern Oregon and northern California. Thorp's talk was Webcast.

Thorp, a member of the California Academy of Sciences since 1986, says that the loss of a native pollinator "could strike a devasting blow to the ecosystem, economy and food supply."

Locally, we've noticed far fewer bumble bees than in past years. Last summer we spotted a few in the UC Davis Arboretum (see below). This is the yellow-faced bumble bee or  Bombus vosnesenskii, the most common Califonria bumble bee.

Not so common any more.