Half of Michigan's Bumblebee Species in Decline, One Extinct

In Michigan, half of its bumblebee species have declined by 50 percent or more, Michigan Radio reported. "Of those twelve species, about half of them have declined and the other half are stable," Thomas Wood, a post-doctoral research associate at Michigan State University, told the radio station. Of the six species that have declined, their numbers dropped by more than 50 percent, Wood added. One species, the rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis), has even gone extinct in Michigan. In 2017, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service classified the rusty patched bumblebee as an endangered species, the first bumblebee in the country and the first wild bee of any kind in the continental U.S. to receive Endangered Species Act protection.

The bee, identified by its reddish abdomen, was once common and abundant across 28 states from Connecticut to South Dakota, the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces, but its population plummeted by 87 percent since the late 1990s. Neonicotinoids are "acutely toxic to bees and they're used in agriculture. Almost all the corn that's planted in Michigan, and in the Midwest more generally, is treated with these insecticides," Wood explained.

Source: Ecowatch, Jan 16, 2019
https://www.ecowatch.com/half-of-michigan-bumblebee-species-in-trouble-…