A quarter of all known bee species haven't been seen since the 1990s | New Scientist
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The number of bee species appears to have declined sharply in the past 30 years, which could mean many types of bee are extinct or so rare that no one has recording a sighting

They found that there were a quarter fewer species reported between 2006 and 2015, as compared with the records we have from before 1990.
The decline is especially alarming considering the number of bee records in this database has increased by around 55 per cent since 2000, so it isn’t down to a lack of observations.

It may not necessarily mean unrecorded bee species are extinct, but they are now rare enough that people who tend to report bee sightings aren’t encountering them.
The destruction of natural habitats, heavy use of pesticides and climate change could explain this decline in species richness, says Zattara.
“We are producing more food to feed our growing population,” says Zattara. “[We are] using highly economically convenient ways to grow single-culture crops, which is removing a lot of the bees’ natural habitat.”

      • Mardoniush [she/her]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Even lawns used to be better, a few decades ago clover and daisies were encouraged and a sign of a healthy yard, now in the US apparently it gets your HOA to cite you for untidiness.

    • the_bavarian [comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      fair points, comrades, but can't we all agree that fucking American liberalism is the most scourging monoculture imaginable? And why y'all gotta spread it all over the world, too. Displacing all these beautiful "insects" everywhere so that fucking Tom Friedman can write yet another ode to the prosperity wrought by 10,000 McDonalds restaurants.

    • Lord_ofThe_FLIES [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Honey bees are an invasive species in a lot of places and they threaten local bees. Omnis are at it again :angery: