Monday, April 30, 2012

New American species of bee

Buzzing yes, Stinging no


John Ascher is an entomologist in New York.  He's one of the leading experts on bees, but the blue-green buzzer he collected in Brooklyn's Prospect Park in 2010 puzzled him.  It took until 2012 to nail it down and get a formal description ready of the newest domestic species of bee - one of the "sweat bees" that "uses humans as a salt lick." Sounds a little gross, but these are basically harmless critters, and a new discovery within a major urban areas is always intriguing. 


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