The mission to find wild “warm-blooded” bumblebees in Alaska

This story originally Appear in Atlas Obscura And is Climate Service Desk Cooperation.

Jessica Rykken, an entomologist at Denali National Park and Preserve, said: “People don’t come to Denali and other parks in Alaska to see bumblebees, but they should do it.” “The last one. The “frontier” state may be famous for the extremely large wild animals from bears, moose, but in a smaller area, the diversity of bumblebees (or bumblebees, depending on whom you ask) is unusually high, and it is very important for the entire ecology. The system provides power.

“Introducing the next generation of plants to provide habitat for reindeer, moose, or any large herbivores, and then carnivores that depend on them, all have to do with pollinators,” Kathy Burns, wildlife biologist at the Alaska Bureau of Land Management Say. “It can be said that I think they are the most important wildlife groups for ecological functions.”

Bumblebee is not the only local pollinator in the northernmost part of the United States. There are many other native bee species, and native flies also play an important role (as do some butterfly species). But the number of bumblebees in Alaska is outstanding—”Overall, our bee diversity is quite low, but our proportion of bumblebees is very high,” Ricken said—and the reasons for their success.Although many bumblebee species in the lower 48 states are declining, the Alaskan members of this genus bomb It seems to be booming. Now, researchers and environmentalists are embarking on an unprecedented effort to determine how many bees (including bumblebees) are buzzing in their large and largely uninvestigated state. The first Alaskan Bee Atlas project is underway, and the Hornet will play the leading role.

Of the nearly 50 bumblebee species recorded across the United States, almost half can be found in Alaska, including four species that are not found anywhere else in the country. Huge body, covered with thick insulating hair (During a Zoom call, Rykken held up a thick, furry, fixed specimen, some the size of her thumb), Bumblebee has other cold weather survival skills, including twitch. Although bees can usually quickly vibrate their flight muscles to generate heat independently of flying, bumblebees are particularly good at it.

“They use these flying muscles to raise their body temperature by 30 degrees in five minutes,” Rykken said. When other insects are grounded, the rapid rise in heat enables them to fly on cold and even snowy days. Moreover, although other social bees, including bees, gather to keep the queen, young bees, and each other warm, bumblebees can survive alone.A kind bomb The queen bee can actually transfer the heat generated by the flight muscles to the abdomen to keep the eggs warm.

“Their temperature regulation is amazing,” said entomologist Derek Sikes, curator of the Insect Collection at the University of Alaska Museum. Sykes said that bumblebees are “actually warm-blooded animals: they produce heat, but it’s not as constant as mammals. But it’s internal, not just basking in the sun.”

Natural life cycle bomb The species is suitable for Alaska’s long winter and short summer. In August, when the first frost usually comes, the queen bee will start a long hibernation alone underground. It appears in the spring, finds a nesting site, and produces female worker bees, and eventually potential new queens and drones to mate with them. As August approaches again and the mating is successful, the new queen bee will find a place to lie down in the winter. “The others—the old queen, the workers, the men—are dead,” Ricken said. Although many other social bee species spend the winter in groups, the bumblebee’s individual strategy requires fewer resources and is more effective for their environment.