Status Review of Three Formerly Common Species of Bumble Bee ...

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diseases by the commercial bumble bee industry, other pests and diseases, habitatdestruction or alteration, pesticides, invasive species, natural pest or predator populationcycles, and climate change. In the case of these bumble bees, several lines of evidenceimplicate introduced disease as the most likely cause of the declines of Bombus sensustricto in North America. Firstly, the fact that other bumble bee species persist and thrivein areas where members of the subgenus Bombus sensu stricto in North America aredeclining suggests a more specific cause for vulnerability of this particular subset of ourbumble bee fauna. Secondly, instead of a gradual decline over decades, as has beendocumented with British bumble bee populations (Williams et al. 2007), these bumblebees went from being widespread and commonly found to rare or absent within arelatively short period of time (about 7-10 years) throughout much or all of their previousranges. A third factor indicating disease is the timing of the declines. The earliest declineswere observed with B. occidentalis in western North America in the late 1990s; this is thesame time that commercially raised B. occidentalis populations were exhibiting problemswith Nosema bombi (Velthius and van Doorn 2006). Several years later, scientists beganto notice B. affinis and B. terricola populations declining in eastern North America. Thefact that the bumble bees in decline are all closely related suggests that there could begenetic susceptibility to certain disease strains exhibited by bumble bees in the subgenusBombus sensu stricto, or shared behavioral traits that increase their susceptibility tocertain pests or parasites (Otterstatter and Whidden 2004). Declines from threats otherthan disease that are listed in this review would have likely impacted species across abroader range of bumble bee subgenera (Williams et al. 2007). Recent discoveries ofisolated populations may indicate the existence of remnant populations of bumble beesthat were either not exposed to the disease through geographic isolation or were resistantto the disease.The most likely cause of introduction and spread of the disease is international andinterstate transport of bumble bees by the commercial bumble bee rearing industry.APHIS currently regulates international transport of bumble bees, with the exception oftransport between the U.S. and Canada (which allows the unregulated transfer of twospecies of bumblebees). However, there are no current regulations that limit the interstatetransport of bumble bees. If APHIS established a domestic quarantine of bumble bees,they would be taking an important step towards stopping the spread of a pathogen thatmay be causing the extinction of North American bumble bees.It is likely that other potential threats, including habitat destruction, pesticides, invasivespecies, and climate change, have contributed to the severity of the declines in Bombussensu stricto. Populations under stress from these factors are more susceptible to severepopulation fluctuations. With an exotic disease as the likely underlying cause, thesespecies, already under the strain of habitat loss, pesticide exposure, and climate change,are being pushed to the brink of extinction.Most of the current information is based on literature records and some museum records(Appendix IA, B and C) for the bumble bees of concern in this review. In the future,assembly data from all major museum collections containing bumble bees would enhanceour knowledge of historical distributions, relative abundances, flower records, and other34
ecological data associated with museum specimens. Dr. Strange and colleagues havedatabased several thousand historic records of B. occidentalis from twelve museumcollections in a continuing effort to understand the specific historic range and sitecharacteristics and to guide current sampling efforts. Dr. Cameron and colleagues are inthe process of databasing thousands of records of eastern bumble bees, including B.terricola and B. affinis. An itemized list of museum collections known and expected tohave significant collections of bumble bees is in Appendix II.VIII. LITERATURE CITEDAbu-Asab, M. S., P. M. Peterson, S. G. Shetler, and S. S. Orli. 2001. Earlier plantflowering in spring as a response to global warming in the Washington, DC, area.Biodiversity Conservation 10: 597-612.Ambrose, J. T., M. S. Stanghellini, and D. I. Hopkins. 2000. A scientific note on thethreat of small hive beetles (Aethina tumida Murray) to bumble bee (Bombus spp.)colonies in the United States. Apidologie 31: 455-456.Babendreier, D., B. Reichhart, J. Romeis, and F. Bigler. 2008. Impact of insecticidalproteins expressed in transgenic plants on bumblebee microcolonies. EntomologiaExperimentalis et Applicata 126: 148-157.Banda, H. J., and R. J. Paxton. 1991. Pollination of greenhouse tomatoes by bees. ActaHorticulturae 288: 194-198.Batra, S. W. T. 1993. Male-fertile potato flowers are selectively buzz-pollinated only byBombus terricola Kirby in upstate New York. Journal of the Kansas EntomologicalSociety 66: 252-254.Bauer, P. J. 1983. Bumblebee pollination relationships on the Beartooth Plateau tundra ofsouthern Montana. American Journal of Botany 70: 134-144.Bhattacharya, M., R. B. Primack, and J. Gerwein. 2003. Are roads and railroads barriersto bumblebee movement in a temperate suburban conservation area? BiologicalConservation 109: 37-45.Biesmeijer, J. C., S. P. M. Roberts, M. Reemer, R. Ohlemüller, M. Edwards, T. Peeters,A. P. Schaffers, S. G. Potts, R. Kleukers, C. D. Thomas, J. Settele, and W. E. Kunin.2006. Parallel declines in pollinators and insect-pollinated plants in Britain and theNetherlands. Science 313: 351-354.Bequaert, J. 1920. Hymenoptera collected near Boston, Mass., with description of avariety of Bombus affinis. Psyche 27: 6-12.Brown, M. J. F., R. Loosli, and P. Schmid-Hempel. 2000. Condition-dependentexpression of virulence in a trypanosome infecting bumblebees. Oikos 91: 421-427.35
Page 1 and 2: Status Review of Three Formerly Com
Page 4 and 5: use as commercial pollinators. Dr.
Page 6 and 7: B. Habitat requirementsB. affinis,
Page 8 and 9: and with black hairs extending rear
Page 10 and 11: Although this species was formerly
Page 12 and 13: September 2007).RegionSouthernOntar
Page 14 and 15: B. Pollination EcologyBombus terric
Page 16 and 17: as recently as 2007, Massachusetts
Page 18 and 19: Variety 1: As nominate form above,
Page 20 and 21: the Rocky Mountains. Below are find
Page 22 and 23: Historical records from within San
Page 24 and 25: VI. CURRENT AND POTENTIAL THREATS -
Page 26 and 27: impatiens to be transported into th
Page 28 and 29: equest is made to APHIS, APHIS will
Page 30 and 31: Insecticides are used in wild lands
Page 32 and 33: eetles use commercial honey bee col
Page 36 and 37: Brown, M. J. F., R. Schmid-Hempel,
Page 38 and 39: Fitzpatrick, U., T. E. Murray, R. J
Page 40 and 41: Holm, S. N. 1966. The utilization a
Page 42 and 43: Leonard, M. D. 1928. A list of the
Page 44 and 45: Medler, J. T. and D. W. Carney. 196
Page 46 and 47: Plowright, R. C., B. A. Pendrel, an
Page 48 and 49: 48: 543-548.Stephen, W. P. 1957. Bu
Page 50 and 51: Williams, P. H., M. B. Arau ́jo, a
Page 52 and 53: Abbreviations for museums are as fo
Page 54 and 55: Tennessee: Sugarlands, 12-Apr-1949,
Page 56 and 57: H.C. Manis, Strange, U of ID; 2: Bu
Page 58 and 59: Montrose, 5-Aug-1960, F., P., & M.
Page 60 and 61: Lick Cr. 28 mi SE Union 4280 ft, 3-
Page 62 and 63: N.E. Woodley, Strange, WSU; Richlan

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