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‘Extinct’ No More: Rare Blue Bee Rediscovered in Florida
Global News ^ | May 14, 2020 | Josh K. Elliot

Posted on 05/16/2020 8:16:28 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Insect researchers are buzzing in Florida this week over the rediscovery of the blue bee, a rare little creature thought to have gone extinct shortly after it was discovered.

Researchers in Florida say the blue calamintha bee (Osmia calaminthae) has been spotted for the first time since 2016, stoking hopes that it might be possible to save the insect from extinction.

Blue calamintha bees nest alone and feed on Ashe’s Calamint, a threatened plant found only in Florida. The bees were first recorded in 2011 and dropped out of sight a few years later, despite calls to protect their threatened habitat in central Florida.

Researcher Chase Kimmel ventured back to the patch of pine forest where the bee was first discovered to look for it this spring, just to see if it was still alive.

“I was open to the possibility that we may not find the bee at all,” Kimmel said in a release from the Florida Museum of Natural History, where he’s conducting his post-doctoral research.

“When we spotted it in the field it was really exciting,” Kimmel said.

Researchers at the museum have launched a two-year study to learn more about the bee’s numbers and habits, particularly since it can only be found in one tiny tract of forest.

They know that the bee nests alone but they’ve never actually found one of its nests. They’ve also learned that it likes to bob its head around on top of flowers to collect as much pollen as possible on its tiny hairs.

“We’re trying to fill in a lot of gaps that were not previously known,” Kimmel said. “There’s a lot of neat discoveries that can still occur.”

The bee is a hyper-local species that likely evolved around an isolated patch of sand dunes along the central Florida ridge, according to Jaret Daniels, Kimmel’s adviser at the museum. They hope to figure out exactly how many of the bees live in the area.

“Having this bee in more abundance than we expected is really encouraging for its survival,” Kimmel told Weather.com.

The two researchers are doing their best to work through the COVID-19 lockdowns so they can monitor the bee over the next year.

If nothing else, they hope their work will answer a key question for the critically threatened bee: is it to be, or not to be?


TOPICS: Agriculture; Local News; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: ashescalamint; bees; bluebees; bluecalaminthabee; calamint; florida; osmiacalaminthae
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To: Viking2002

Just call me Rain Man.


21 posted on 05/16/2020 8:48:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: dp0622

Well, I certainly don’t know anything about the ‘games’ some of you play, here. I’m just having trouble dissecting your post.

What on Earth does ‘not giving a !!!!’ about possibly extant species have to do with PETA?

Do you ever think critically, and outside of your knee-jerk politics and antipathy to certain social movements? Sometimes ‘a cigar is just a cigar’, and doesn’t relate to any political or social ideology.

It is quite possible that some species that we have believed were extinct, still exist.

I think that’s kind of interesting. It not only points to some of the possible failures of understanding on the part of the Great God Science; but to the resilience of life on Earth; and to how much we still don’t understand.


22 posted on 05/16/2020 8:55:50 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: nickcarraway
🎶 Blue bee blue bee blue 🎶
23 posted on 05/16/2020 9:12:27 PM PDT by mumblypeg
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To: nickcarraway

Nothing personal, but the mental picture of Dustin Hoffman sitting at the keyboard is a bit unnerving.......


24 posted on 05/16/2020 9:13:11 PM PDT by Viking2002 (Why should I walk into the great unknown, when I can sit here, and throw my bones?)
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To: Viking2002

Luckily, I don’t look anything like him.


25 posted on 05/16/2020 9:14:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

well aint this just the blue bee’s knees?


26 posted on 05/16/2020 9:46:56 PM PDT by Bob434
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To: mumblypeg

So can an actual green hornet be far behind?


27 posted on 05/17/2020 3:41:10 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: dp0622
as usual I don't even have to look at the poster

How'bout the poster girl?

28 posted on 05/17/2020 4:17:24 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: Fightin Whitey

YES!! YES!!!

I don’t know which to test drive first!!!

NOT GUILTY!!

How do so many here know I’m a dog?

Or is it just that most other guys are too? :)


29 posted on 05/17/2020 7:03:49 AM PDT by dp0622 (Radicals N racists dont point fingers at me I'm a small town white boy Just tryin to make ends meet)
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To: Deaf Smith

Only if the researcher receives the proper amount of funding.


30 posted on 05/17/2020 7:12:28 AM PDT by NativeSon ( What Would Virginia Do? #WWVD)
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To: dila813

The Blue Bee is Darwinian science as reality.


31 posted on 05/17/2020 7:21:03 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Progressives are existential American enemies)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

I was thinkin’ more along the lines of Ol’ Blue Eyes...


32 posted on 05/17/2020 11:37:07 AM PDT by mumblypeg
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Hive got to believe that Josh K. Elliot's waited his whole career for this one. Insect researchers are buzzing in Florida this week...

33 posted on 05/17/2020 11:52:11 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Clay Moore
Don't you mean, blue bee or not blue bee?

34 posted on 05/17/2020 11:53:22 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Trillian
What kind of bees give milk? [punchline redacted]

35 posted on 05/17/2020 11:54:18 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: nickcarraway
The researchers probably had to comb the forest.
I'm glad they didn't experience the sting of failure.
Okay, I'll stop now.

36 posted on 05/17/2020 11:57:39 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: nickcarraway

All industry in Florida must be shut down now!

And BLM must take full possession of the state of Florida for this precious endangered species’ sake!


37 posted on 05/17/2020 12:04:41 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: nickcarraway

Interesting... thanks for sharing nick...


38 posted on 05/17/2020 12:15:39 PM PDT by GOPJ (Plan for the worst (intentional bio-weapon attack.) Hope for the best (current plan)...)
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To: SunkenCiv

My kids love that joke.


39 posted on 05/17/2020 12:26:54 PM PDT by Trillian
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To: Trillian
These bees xtinct somebody, it was better when they were extinct.

40 posted on 05/17/2020 1:06:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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