WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2004
SCIENCE
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
15
Discovering bees no simple task
By J.T. Mitchum
jmitchum@kansan.com
Kansas Science Writer
When you think of how many types of bees there are, there aren't many you can think of. Bumble bees, honey bees, sweat bees and killer bees are a few of the more popular ones.
"If we decided to try to name all the new species, we could spend the rest of our lives just naming bees," said Allan Smith-Pardo, graduate student in entomology.
If you are capable of thinking of a few more,you might be able to name a small fraction of the approximately 17,000 known bee species.
Smith-Pardo is co-author with Michael Engel, assistant professor of biological sciences, of a paper in a peer-reviewed journal describing a new species of highland bee found in Costa Rica.
rethinking the history of this species.
The bee species is named Andinaugochlora Centralpina, and Engel and Smith-Pardo say it is significant for being the first bee species in a group thought to exist only in Northern South America at high elevations. This new relative has scientists like Smith-Pardo
Engel said there were many plants that could only be pollinated by a certain type of bee. Without understanding different species of bees, Engel said, we wouldn't understand what we were putting at risk as human development takes over landscapes.
Smith-Pardo said even though there were so many bees yet to be named, describing a new species was no simple task. But that's what he enjoys about his work.
"I like the diversity in bees," Smith-Pardo said. "It's not just in the shapes and morphology. It's in the behaviors, social structure and everything in between."
Smith-Pardo said it took a deep understanding of the group of bees being looked at to find a new species, and that minute details often count as new species.
Bee culture also takes time to know. Smith-Pardo said some bees lived in isolation, while others lived communally but worked and ate independently, and yet others lived in communities of thousands working together to survive in a welldefined society.
Courtnev Kuhlen/Kansan
Bees are the quiet promulgators of the world's vegetation, Smith-Pardo said.
Allan Smith-Pardo, entomology graduate student, gestures to some of the bees in KU's large collection. He said that while others may find the task of identifying and studying bee species boring, he thinks it is fascinating.
These busy workers ensure and enhance pollination of plants as they track pollen from plant to plant. But he said it was more complex than just feeding on flowers.
Because bees and plants have evolved together, certain plants have altered their structure to release pollens to certain types of bees, Smith-Pardo said.
Understanding this is important to see the consequences of a species of bee going extinct.
"You can't just look at the species of bee itself, you have to realize everything it affects," Smith-Pardo said.
— Edited by Erik Johnson