Rusty Patched Bumblebees

The Bee shown in the image displayed on the course website is of the Rusty Patched Bumblebee (Bombus Affinis). This unique bumblebee has recently received attention from many environmental agencies. On January 11th, it received protections given by the U.S. Endangered Species Act. This is the very first variation of bumblebee to be place on the list. Rusty patched bumblebees are considered as a very social insect, living in colonies led by a single queen. Workers and males are designated by their reddish splotches found on their backs, hence their name. The bees are natives of North America, once found across Midwestern and eastern united states, in habitats which covered nearly 28 U.S. states and two provinces of Canada. This has been restricted to 13 states and only one Canadian province because of habitat loss resulting from agriculture. Since the 1990s, the quantity of the bees has undergone a dramatic reduction in equivalence to 87 percent. A report in 2016 by the FWS reported that the bees only populate 8 percent of their prior habitats. The main contributors to this include habitat loss and declining genetic diversity due to the increasingly small populations. …show more content…
Another theory is that climate change is also giving way to adverse effects on the bees. Although information on the effects of pathogens and parasites in regards to the bees is limited, studies made by the FWS have raised alarms. A research report conducted in 2014 found in the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology found the pathogen Nosema bombi to have adverse effects on the bees in many cases. Approximately 66.5 percent of the species Bombus centralis, and 63 percent of the species Bombus huntii were