Tuesday 8 September 2009

Bee Back?

There is a plan to capture queen Short-haired bumblebees in New Zealand (where their ancestors were introduced to pollinate Red clover in the 1800's) and to reintroduce queens of the progeny of these insects to Dungeness in Kent (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/07/short-haired-bumblebee-repopulated). This bee was declared extinct in the UK in 2000. This should be quite an interesting study but bumblebees of many kinds are not currently doing well here. One can't help wondering whether the introduced insects will continue to struggle, especially as this species is said to be a fussy feeder in terms of the flowers that it will visit.

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