Microbes on the Menu for Bee Larvae

ARS News Service By Jan Suszkiw MADISON, WISCONSIN, August 20, 2019—Bees only feast on nectar and pollen, right? Wrong. Turns out, Nature's famously busy insect isn't strictly vegan, after all. Reporting online in this month's American Naturalist, a team of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and university scientists has shown that bee larvae (brood) have a taste for "microbial meat." ARS entomologist Shawn Steffan and his …

Legacy of Robbin Thorp: Franklin’s Bumble Bee
Proposed as Endangered Species

DAVIS - The late Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis,  and a global authority on bees, worked tirelessly to try to include Franklin's bumble bee (Bombus franklini) as an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). In fact, he and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on June 23, 2010 …

Clemson Study Finds Wildflowers Create
Pollinator Harmony for Watermelons

Denise Attaway, College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences; Public Service and Agriculture   CHARLESTON – A Clemson University graduate student has found adding a little color to watermelon fields can attract pollinators which can help improve quality and increase yields of one of South Carolina’s most important vegetable crops. Miriam “Mimi” Jenkins of Tampa, Florida, has found growing strips of wildflowers near …