Fascinating piece on the American Museum of Natural History website summarizing the findings of recent studies showing 2,000 more bee species than were recognized in the most recently published tome on bee species. From the AMNH website:
"Scientists have discovered that there are more bee species than previously thought. In the first global accounting of bee species in over a hundred years, John S. Ascher, a research scientist in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, compiled online species pages and distribution maps for more than 19,200 described bee species, showcasing the diversity of these essential pollinators. This new species inventory documents 2,000 more described, valid species than estimated by Charles Michener in the first edition of his definitive The Bees of the World published eight years ago."
Read the full article or head straight over to the World Bee Checklist at the scary-sounding but benign Integrated Taxonomic Information System. The ITIS released the bee checklist to coincide with National Pollinator Week.
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