The biggest threats to these bumblebees include pesticides, habitat loss and climate change, according to the FWS.
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If approved after a 60-day comment period, the species would be the first bee listed as endangered in the continental United States.
“Endangered Species Act safeguards are now the only way the bumble bee would have a fighting chance for survival”, she added. “Insecticides are specifically created to directly kill insects, including bumble bees, and herbicides reduce available floral resources, thus indirectly affecting bumble bees”.
Named for the conspicuous reddish blotch on its abdomen, the rusty patched bumble bee – or Bombus affinis, as it is known to scientists – has plunged in abundance and distribution by more than 90 percent since the late 1990s, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
This insect is a vitally important pollinator for nearly one-third of U.S. crops, from blueberries to tomatoes, according to Sarina Jepsen of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Of the 47 varieties native to the US and Canada, about a quarter are in danger of extinction.
The protections stem from a lawsuit against the FWS filed by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. A public comment period will last until November 21, after which the FWS will finalize its decision to give the bee endangered species protection or revise their initial proposal.
Two years later, the FWS now takes another important step towards protecting the bee.
Thursday’s edition of the Federal Register contains new protections for bumble bees, horses, doves, snails, and bats. The crop protection industry promotes sound stewardship practices in crop protection product usage, and we will continue to work with growers, beekeepers, regulators and other stakeholders to support bee health. The chemical may be especially damaging to bumble bees, according to the FWS proposal.
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Unlike honey bees, keeping track of drops in population among wild bees is a more hard task.
