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Museum collections are an extremely valuable resource for recording the history of populations of bee species. Physical insect specimens are essential for 1) morphological identification of species, 2) recording when adults are active during the season, 3) where the bees were found, and 4) what flowers they were visiting. All of this provides rich historical data of bee populations over time. However, some data can be sparse, sometimes inaccurate, or incomplete because identifying bees is

Spring is here, as we saw today with one of our first sightings this year of a the mining bee of the genus Andrena sp. These medium sized bees (similar to the size of a honey bee) burrow nests about 2-3 inches into the ground and are common during the spring time. We found a large number of nests on a hillside in State College. The nests are easy to identify as they are commonly found on

Cotton, Fabric of Our Lives Cotton Pollinator Connectivity Workshop was held at Penn State University at State College February 16. It has been shown that increasing the diversity of pollinator species can dramatically increase cotton production. Researchers at University of Texas in Austin estimate that in South Texas, increasing the diversity of pollinators could boost cotton production by up to 18 percent, yielding an increase in annual revenue of more than $1.1 million. Collaborative efforts

The Bee Tells “Strawberry Fields Forever”   Strawberry flower in the Carolina’s Things are well underway for the project, “Integrating pest and pollinator management”. The goal of this project is to better understand how pesticide use, honey bee stocking density, and landscape context are influencing native pollinator communities. Using the national land cover use database and GIS software, we’ve characterized the landscape surrounding many strawberry farms throughout North and South Carolina. We will be working on

The Tracking of Feral Bees project at Penn State is underway. Last Thursday night, we set out on our first feral bee adventure of the year! About 45 minutes south of State College, in Huntingdon County PA, we sampled individuals from the our feral colony of our study. A great sycamore tree, close to 100 years old, had fallen. The tree had a large cavity that was home to a feral colony. The comb inside