Should the American Bumblebee be placed on the Endangered Species List for World Bee Day and Endangered Species Day?

Today is both World Bee Day and Endangered Species Day, so I'm focusing on one potentially endangered bee species. Watch Some Want American Bumblebee Added To Endangered Species List from TODAY.

The American bumblebee has declined by nearly 90 percent across the U.S. Now there’s a new push to protect it under the Endangered Species Act. NBC’s Kerry Sanders reports as our series TODAY Climate continues.

While the U.S. hasn't added the American Bumblebee to the national Endangered Species List, at least one state has added it to the state's endangered species list, as WWLP-22News reported in American Bumble Bee was added to the endangered species list nearly three years ago.

The American Bumble Bee was a common sight in Massachusetts more than 50 years ago, but the population's been in steady decline for the last 25 years, and are now found almost exclusively in Franklin and Hampshire counties.

Good for Massachusetts.

The decline of the American Bumblebee is apparently taking another species down with it, as the Center for Biological Diversity described in a press release, Variable Cuckoo Bumblebee Moves One Step Closer to Endangered Species Act Protection.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the variable cuckoo bumblebee, a critically imperiled species that has not been observed since 1999, may warrant Endangered Species Act protection. The announcement kicks off a one-year status assessment of the species.

Today’s positive finding comes in response to a petition filed in 2021 by the Center for Biological Diversity. If the variable cuckoo bumblebee gets protected under the Act, it would be the first cuckoo bumblebee listed and the third listed bumblebee after the rusty patched bumblebee and Franklin’s bumblebee.

“These bumblebees need protection urgently, and if the Biden administration acts quickly, we can safeguard this important species before it’s gone forever,” said Jess Tyler, a Center staff scientist who authored the petition. “I’m hopeful that the variable cuckoo bumblebee is still out there, but we need swift federal action to help this species avoid extinction.”

The variable cuckoo bumblebee was once widely found in open grasslands and meadows. While it has lived mainly in the eastern United States, it has also been observed as far southwest as Arizona and as far northeast as New Hampshire. It was last seen in the 1990s in Nebraska, Missouri and Florida. There have been no confirmed observations of this species since 1999.

Cuckoo bumblebees are social parasites that take over the nests of other bumblebees by subduing the resident queen and tricking the host’s worker bees into feeding and caring for the cuckoo bumblebee’s young. In doing so, cuckoo bumblebees help keep host bumblebee populations diverse and healthy, including by reducing disease virulence.

The variable cuckoo bumblebee is entirely dependent on its host species, the American bumblebee, which has declined by an estimated 89%. The Center has also petitioned to list the American bumblebee under the Act and is fighting to get it protected. The variable cuckoo bumblebee and its host are also threatened by multiple concurrent factors that degrade their habitat, including intensive agriculture and pesticides.

The Service will now initiate a scientific status review and public comment period before deciding whether to protect the variable cuckoo bumblebee.

Background

Wild bees are essential to the pollination of wild flowering plants and many flowering crops. North America is home to 46 species of bumblebees, but an increasing number are in trouble. Nearly 1 in 4 bumblebee species is in decline and threatened with extinction in North America.

The variable cuckoo bumblebee is a generalist pollinator and was once found in a wide range of open habitats, including urban areas. Their host species makes its nests in pre-existing cavities, like rodent burrows and rotten logs, or on the surface of the ground in large grass bunches. The variable cuckoo bumblebee is one of a rare group of parasitic cuckoo bumblebees that play important regulatory roles in bumblebee communities and ecosystems.

I just hope it's not too late, as the Variable Cuckoo Bumblebee has not been seen this century and may already be extinct.

Both videos show footage of honeybees instead of bumblebees, who have their own day. Nature on PBS addresses that and mentions one of the other endangered bumblebees, the Rusty-patched Bumblebee, in The Power of Pollinators.

Everyone has heard of honeybees, but what about the 4,000 species of wild, native bees that live alongside honey bees here in North America? These lesser-known, but equally industrious insects not only pollinate our crops but also support healthy, diverse ecosystems across the continent. Unfortunately, many of these native bee species are in trouble. In The Power of Pollinators, entomologist and insect evangelist Dr. Samuel Ramsey showcases the diversity, beauty, and importance of North America’s wild bees, and shares simple steps that everyone can take to help them. Get engaged at www.plantwildflowers.org.

All of this is good information I plan on passing along to my students.

I'm not done with biodiversity, as Sunday is International Day for Biological Diversity. Maybe I can combine my observance with the Sunday entertainment feature. A survey of currently airing nature series, anyone?