{"id":5072,"date":"2012-05-03T08:05:52","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T15:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=5072"},"modified":"2012-05-04T07:58:28","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T14:58:28","slug":"two-bees-or-not-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=5072","title":{"rendered":"Two bees or not to be"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

A crane lifts the flatcar from down the bank<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yesterday afternoon, I was watching the last of the C.P.R. wreck saga: the lifting of the flatcar that had jumped the tracks and slid down the bank towards the Lake. That story has been told through a number of postings: train wreck<\/a>, wreck stage\u00a0one \u221a<\/a> , wreck Sunday<\/a>, drowned excavator<\/a>, excavator out<\/a>.\u00a0The only job remaining was the extraction of the flatcar from the bank. This was done yesterday.<\/p>\n

While watching this exciting event (life here is insouciant), I saw a bumble bee fly by and abruptly ignored the C.P.R.’s travails. Heavens, that looked as if it might be a Bombus\u00a0occidentalis<\/em>: that is, a rare sighting of the ill-fated Western Bumble Bee. Switching lenses, I set out on a wild-bee chase. Soon I had managed to photograph two different bumble bees, behind each of which lay a fascinating story.<\/p>\n

Bombus occidentalis<\/em>
\nThe Western Bumble Bee was once common across western North America. It was last seen in California a half-dozen years ago, and a survey in the Okanagan a couple of years ago found only two. I saw one around Kootenay Lake in 2009 and another in 2010, but none last year. In former times, hundreds or thousands might be seen during a summer. The backstory of the virtual extirpation\u00a0of this once-significant local pollinator is involved. The tale combines elements of: bumble bee navigation, commercial greenhouse pollination, breeding techniques, international marketing, and (the lack of) trade regulations. Suffice to say, I was delighted to see one in my yard this afternoon. The Western Bumble Bee is easily\u00a0identified\u00a0by its white-tipped abdomen. This female (probably a queen) is collecting nectar from a Pieris japonica<\/em>.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Bombus melanopygus
\n<\/em>As far as I know, this bee is not threatened, so it wasn’t its conservation status that attracted my attention. Rather it was its thorax—I had never seen such a thorax. It is covered with bumps. I suspected the bumps were mites and that the bee was doomed. I sent both pictures to Robbin Thorp of UC Davis. He confirmed that my first picture did indeed show a Bombus occidentalis<\/em>, and that the second was a\u00a0Bombus melanopygus<\/em>\u00a0carrying mites on its thorax. Then came the surprise. These mites were merely hitchhiking from one colony to another aboard a queen. They are likely to be beneficial because they then feed on harmful fungi found in the nest. The queen is thus bringing her own house-cleaning staff along with her. My Bombus melanopygus<\/em> and its offspring are probably going to do rather well by those mites.\"\"<\/p>\n

The bee season is well underway.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Yesterday afternoon, I was watching the last of the C.P.R. wreck saga: the lifting of the flatcar that had jumped the tracks and slid down the bank towards the Lake. That story has been told through a number of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bugs","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5072"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5088,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5072\/revisions\/5088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}