A new species of bee has been identified and described in the plains of Israel. It is called Lasioglossum dorchini.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himIn the midst of the catastrophic decline in global bee populations, a new discovery gives a boost of optimism about pollination and habitat conservation: a new species of bee solitaria was in fact identified and described by Alain Pauly, a taxonomist of the Belgian Royal Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, in the plains of Israel.
The species was named Lasioglossum dorchini, in homage to the Israeli bee researcher Achik Dorchin of the Steinhardt Natural History Museum of Tel Aviv University, and is very small.
The family to which the new found belongs is that of the Halictidae, commonly known as sweaty bees, and is the largest of all bee genera. Most of the bees these species nest on the ground, but some also do so on rotten trunks.
“The location located in the Nahal Alexander National Park is characterized by semi-stabilized sand dunes typical of the central coastal plain of Israel. The park was partly planted with non-native eucalyptus trees in the mid-60s, mainly eucalyptus camaldulensis ”, explains Yael Mandelik, professor of the Entomology Department of the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
©Belgian Journal of Entomology
"Beyond the professional enthusiasm to discover a new species previously unknown to science, this discovery has broader application value in helping us better understand bee communities, their habitat requirements and the pollination services they can provide." , concludes Mandelik.
The discovery was recently published in the Belgian Journal of Entomology.
Fonte: Belgian Journal of Entomology
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