Many Americans know that honeybees are threatened by colony collapse disorder, but few of them realize just how many different kinds of bees there are, says a study published in the online edition of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
“In our recent survey, 99 percent of our respondents said bees are critical or important, yet only 14 percent were able to guess, within 1,000, the actual number of bee species in the United States,” said Wilson, an assistant professor of biology at Utah State University and the study’s co-author. “Most people estimated around 50 species of bees, while the correct number is about 4,000 known species.”
Wilson warned that if the public doesn’t know these species exist, it becomes extremely difficult to protect them — and many are facing similar challenges to their populations as honeybees.