Idaho bee identification, atlas effort takes shape

A volunteer-led Idaho master melittologist program aims to expand the pool of people with bee knowledge, build upon recent research and establish a bee atlas for the state.

Initial data for the Idaho Bee Atlas is expected to be available at year’s end.

Bee scientist Ron Bitner and the College of Idaho in 2020 received a USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant to evaluate native bees in specialty crop fields in the southwest region’s Treasure Valley — which has high crop diversity including a large seed industry, and a growing population.

The survey identified 727 bee species in Idaho. Master melittologist volunteers expect the state has closer to 800, “which indicates we need help to find them,” said Karleen Davis, Idaho Bee Atlas lead and volunteer entomologist with the Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History at C of I in Caldwell. “We have a lot of work to do collecting them, identifying them and adding them to the atlas.”

Nine new volunteers joined for the current bee season, March through October in the warmest parts of Idaho, she said. All are enrolled in an Oregon State University Extension Service master melittologist online course and are “learning about the biology and life history of these busy pollinators” as well as “developing the skills and knowledge needed to collect, document and identify native bees.”

Hands-on training in bee collection will be provided at four field events — one each in late April and in May in the Nampa-Caldwell area, one in the mountains north of Boise in June, and one in the state’s northern panhandle in early July. Volunteer collection events will be held this summer, and museum entomology representatives plan to participate in Bug Day at the Idaho Botanical Garden in east Boise in September.

The museum, already home to a bee identification lab and species samples, ultimately will house the new bee specimens collected and documented. The museum is a partner in the all-volunteer project along with OSU Extension, Idaho Fish and Game’s master naturalist program and the University of Idaho master gardener program.

In Idaho, “unlike the imported honeybees, most native bees spend only a small part of the year as flying insects,” Davis said. “They are naturally coordinated with the blooming of the plants they use for food. Throughout the season, a series of different bee species will be flying and any particular species may only be active for three-to-six weeks.” Bumble bees, which may live all summer, are an exception.

“We need the help of folks who know their local plants and can help us identify the plants on which we catch bees,” she said. “We are trying to document the relationships between bees and their host plants… so identifying the plants is as important as identifying the bees.”

In addition to identifying Idaho bee species and the relationship between host plants and native ground-dwelling and cavity-nesting bee species — significant in part because some bees may be associated with rare native plants and wildflowers — the work aims to document known range expansions and new expansion areas for the species, said Brad Stokes, UI Extension horticulture and entomology educator based in Caldwell.

And new data and records may emerge as volunteers identify and track bees through the season.

Leaders of the OSU program on which the Idaho effort is modeled have said master melittologist volunteers often become go-to experts in certain aspects of the research, he said.

At a recent microscope training event at C of I, project leaders said some volunteers will work in non-field settings.

The program now has 30 volunteers, Davis said. Most are in the Treasure Valley. Some are in the Pocatello area, in the state’s east region, and in the panhandle.“Since our goal is a true all-Idaho bee atlas, we could sure use more volunteers,” she said.

Atlas data will be viewable with the existing Oregon Bee Atlas at https://oregon-bee-project.github.io/melittoflora/viz.html.

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