fbpx

Blue Door, Blue Bee, this is a huge win for all things Blue.

First discovered in 2011, this indigo insect had scientists worried that it was completely wiped off the map.

Thankfully, a researcher from the Florida Museum of Natural History named Chase Kimmel discovered a small isolated population of the bees this Spring. 

“The first few times I found the bee I couldn’t help [but] constantly question my own eyes and judgment on the diagnostic characteristics of the bee. I needed to look multiple times at the photos to confirm their identity,” he told Smithsonian Magazine

Insects are inherently difficult to collect data on. Imagine wandering through a huge swath of flowers and trying to count the individual bees in the Florida heat. 

Despite the difficulty, Kimmel and his team were able to document 17 of the bees, scientifically known as Osmia calaminthae. 

The data they collected will be presented to the United States Fish & Wildlife Service to help determine if the species qualifies to be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Here’s to protecting all things Blue! (Just kidding, we love all bees equally). 

One reply on “Blue Bee Thought to Be Extinct is Found in Florida”

Comments are closed.