MORE BEES GO MISSING
Around the time Robbin Thorp watched the decline of Franklin’s
bumblebee, biologist John Ascher was looking for bumblebees
in California. He couldn’t find the western bumblebee (
Bombus
occidentalis
), a close relative of Franklin’s. That was odd, because
the western bumblebee was supposed to be one of the most
common bumblebees in the region stretching from California
northward to Alaska.
Researchers John Ascher (
left
) and Kevin Matteson collect bees from a
flowering cherry tree in Central Park in New York City. Ascher identified
several declining bee species in New York State.
Ascher moved to Ithaca, New York, to earn a PhD in entomology
at Cornell University. At first, he found three eastern bumblebee
species in upstate New York: the rusty patched bumblebee (
Bombus
11
The Last Franklin’s Bumblebee
