Three Hours at Your Desk Saturday Could Save Bumble Bees Worldwide

Talk About Citizen Science Conserving Species!

Here's an interesting e-mail from Sam Droege, with whom I  participated in bird counts at the Beltsville (Maryland) Agricultural Research Center which shares land with the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

This is a blitz you do from your computer, indoors, transcribing data that can help save bumble bees, one of the native pollinators that are more efficient in the United States than the European honey bees, which are also in decline.

I can't do it because it's this Saturday, from 1 to 4 p.m., and it's a worldwide event because bumble bees are in decline worldwide.  (I didn't know that!)

Droege, Sam' sdroege@usgs.gov [VA-MD-DE-Bugs]

To

BCC

VA-MD-DE-Bugs@yahoogroups.com

Today at 8:26 PM

BUMBLE BEE BLITZ

[Feel free to send this message to other related listservs]

Worried about the declines and changes in worldwide populations of Bumble Bees?  No? Well you should and now you can help as long as you have a computer with Internet access.

The U.S. National Museum Entomology Department has just scanned in the labels and pictures of 44,000 Bumble Bee specimens in their collection (many more to come)  and this Saturday the objective is to harness the online power of the world to get them all transcribed and into their database.

These Bumble Bees form the baseline for comparisons with current populations, but are useless unless the data are accessible.  

This is where you come in.....

The event will take place this Saturday from 1-4 p.m. 

You can participate simply by clicking into the Smithsonian's Bumblentry  website:

(hint:  you can actually start transcribing now, only 1% of the labels have been transcribed so far)

or, if you are local to the Washington D.C. area and want to join the Entomological elite you can come down to the museum (with your laptop) and enter away.  

You can register for the local event [here]:

Thanks to you the world will be a better place.

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Note the contact for more information on the event is:  Robert Costello NOT Sam Droege

sam

Sam Droege  sdroege@usgs.gov                     
w 301-497-5840 h 301-390-7759 fax 301-497-5624
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
BARC-EAST, BLDG 308, RM 124 10300 Balt. Ave., Beltsville, MD  20705
Http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov

            "Old maids are the support of the British Empire: Old maids keep cats: cats catch field mice that otherwise would destroy humblebee nests; humblebees enable red clover to set seed; red clover is good food for cattle; and roast beef gives strength to men who are the support of the British Empire." 

       - Extracted from the 1948 edition of  Lutz’s Fieldbook of Insects of the United States and Canada

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Bees are Not Optional

Apes sunt et non liberum

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Posted by: "Droege, Sam" <sdroege@usgs.gov>

The Dragon Hunter and the Bee Hunter: Both Birdwatchers

Richard Orr has an interesting website at http://www.marylandinsects.com.   He has checklists and photographs of dragonflies and damselflies found in the Maryland-Washington, DC area, as well as photographs.  He also has photographs of bees, moths, butterflies, and other arthropods.

Richard is considered by many entomologists and conservation biologists as the leading authority on dragonflies and damselflies in the Mid-Atlantic Region.  He maintains the historical and current species records for the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia. 

Richard includes Sam Droege’s records and checklists of regularly occurring bee species found in the Washington D.C. area.  Sam is a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, which adjoins the Beltsville (Maryland) Agricultural Research Center from which I retired in 2011 as a science writer.  I’ve met Richard and Sam on bird counts on the Center’s research farm.

Sam’s artistic photograph of dead birds collected by volunteers in Washington, D.C., victims of collisions with brightly lit buildings, appears in the July-August 2014 issue of Audubon Magazine.   Sam posted the photograph as a “public art statement” on Flickr.  The article is about the Lights Out campaign.  The article sites a link for learning how to start a Lights Out campaign in the towns we live in:  www.bird-friendly.audubon.org/lightsout.

 His site also has links to other arthropod websites, including those dealing with dragonflies and damselflies and other dealing with everything from ants to moths.

 One of the most interesting links to me is to the Maryland Biodiversity Project (MBP) (http://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/index.php) that is cataloging all the living things of Maryland.  The project was started in June 2012 by Bill Hubick and Jim Brighton, right about the time I left Maryland for Ohio.   They have already cataloged more than 13,000 species, including over 4,400 species with photographs, and feature the work of more than 200 naturalists and photographers.

 Richard also has a link to his Flickr photographs at https://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflyhunter.

 

Common White Tail Dragonfly at pond near Apple Valley.  Photographed on June 20, 2014.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Check out my website at:  www.doncomis.simplesite.com

 

An App for Protecting Native Bees in Your Yard

There is a native bee app now available at the "App Store".

 

Called, "Wild Bee Gardens", the app can help with plant selection for backyard gardens that are "native bee friendly", general information about native bees, and identification of native bees.  Written by Celeste Ets-Hokin, this app was designed to inspire an appreciation for the importance and diversity of North America’s native bees. Featuring first-ever electronic links between native bees and many of their favorite flowers, Wild Bee Gardens also provides gardeners with a unique tool for actively participating in their conservation.

 

All of the guides are illustrated with spectacular images of native bees and their habitat, making the Wild Bee Gardens app an excellent educational tool for students of all ages.

 

I got this information from an e-mail from Sam Droege, a bee expert who works for the U.S. Geological Service Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, which is adjacent to the Beltsville (Maryland) Agricultural Research Center where I worked.   He sent the e-mail to the VA-MD-DE-Bugs@yahoogroups.com .

 

Also check out my website.