Help needed: seeking queen bumble bees in Ohio!

We are looking for volunteer naturalists who are able to identify bumble bees to species to help collect data on nest-hunting and foraging queen bumble bees this spring (April - June).

This is part of a 2017-2018 statewide Ohio bumble bee survey that is being conducted by Karen Goodell's lab at Ohio State and Randy Mitchell's lab at the U of Akron, and is funded by the Ohio Department of Transportation. Our primary goal is to determine the current distribution of the endangered rusty-patched bumble bee and the yellow-banded bumble bee, a species of concern. Secondarily, this survey will gives us the opportunity to learn more about the distribution and habitat use of common species as well.

Volunteers in Ohio will collect data and report on:
(1) information on nest-hunting bumble bee queens
(2) timed 15-min observations of patches of flowers where queens forage

Find details and data collection forms here: http://u.osu.edu/beelab/bumble-bee-survey/

To participate, contact Jessie Lanterman at OSUBeeResearch@gmail.com

We also need everyone to be on the lookout for bumble bee queens, and to submit those observations on the Ohio Bee Atlas.

Posted on March 29, 2018 06:00 PM by drells