Friday 16 November 2018

Survey reveals 49 new bee species in Utah


"Bees are more diverse in desert areas and Utah has a lot of unique desert areas," researcher Joseph Wilson said.
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Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Utah is home to 660 bee species, according to a new study. One out of every four bee species endemic to the United States can be found in the aptly named Beehive State.
Thanks to a four-year survey conducted by entomologists at Utah State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, scientists have an improved understanding of Utah's remarkable apian diversity.
Utah hosts a variety of habitat and a diversity of flowers attractive to a wide range of bee species.
"Bees are more diverse in desert areas and Utah has a lot of unique desert areas, with lots of elevational gradients between the deserts and adjacent mountains," Utah State entomologist Joseph Wilson told UPI. "Utah is also home to a diverse flora, we have lots of different kinds of flowering plants, which can be linked to the high bee diversity."
During the survey, Wilson and his colleagues identified 49 new bee species.
Nearly half of the bee species documented in the new paper -- published this week in the journal PeerJ -- can be found in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which was established in 1996.

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