Why survey for bumblebees?
During spring and summer, bumblebees are among the most familiar insects seen visiting flowers. Their fuzzy black and yellow bodies are easy to recognize as they buzz from plant to plant. Bumblebees are strongly linked with areas containing large numbers of flowering plants. In fact, their often ubiquitous presence in gardens makes it easy to take these insects for granted.
However, if patterns detected in other parts of the world hold true for Arkansas, bumblebees may not be as common as we like to think. Evidence is building that populations of bumblebees, and other native bees, are experiencing significant declines. An intensive nationwide survey in the United Kingdom revealed that half of the bumblebee species in that country are close to extinction. Factors cited as contributing to these declines include intensive agriculture, pesticide use, habitat loss, and urban development. Those same factors are also at work in Arkansas.
Bees: The Ultimate Pollinators
Even if bees are declining, why should we be concerned? As a group, bees hold very critical positions in terrestrial ecosystems. Bees represent "ecological linchpins," helping to hold the pieces of an ecosystem together. The majority of flowering plants in North America require pollination by insects. That means for a plant to reproduce and produce seed, an insect must move pollen from one flower to another. Without pollinators, many plants would fail to reproduce. Of all the insects that visit flowers, bees are the most important pollinators.
Bees have two characteristics that make them especially effective pollinators. Firstly, they deliberately collect pollen. No other group of insects does this. Although bees collect pollen to feed their offspring, while foraging, they do transfer pollen from flower to flower. During a single day, a female bee might visit several hundred flowers, depositing pollen all along the way. Secondly, bees tend to be specific about what flowers they visit while foraging. During a foraging trip, a female bee might only visit the flowers of a particular plant species. The benefit of such a foraging preference is that the plants pollen is not deposited on the flowers of a different plant species and wasted.
In Arkansas, bumblebees are vital pollinators of several native plants, some tracked as species of special concern. Such showy plant species as purple beardtongue, obedient plant, and big blue lobelia appear to have evolved in conjunction with bumblebee pollinators. From an agricultural perspective, bumblebees are the most effective pollinators of such crops as blueberries, raspberries, tomatoes, and melons. Without the pollination services of bees, many native plants would become extinct and crop yields could be significantly reduced.
Very little research exists on bumblebees in Arkansas. The only published work on Arkansas's bumblebee fauna dates back to 1965.
Chandler, L. and C. Edward McCoy, Jr. 1965. The bumble bees of Arkansas (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Bombinae). Proceedings of the Arkansas Academy of Science 19:46-53.
In their 1965 paper, Dr. Chandler and Dr. McCoy presented the known distribution of bumblebee species across the state. This document is important as it represents a baseline against which we now can compare the distribution of bumblebee species. By examining bumblebee patterns distribution today, we might be able to detect possible declines in our bumblebee fauna. To assess how bumblebees are faring in Arkansas, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission launched the Arkansas Bumblebee Survey in 2005. This project marked the first effort by any state in the southeastern U.S. to map their bumblebee fauna.