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back to article Bumblebee boffins rediscover long-vanished species

Scientists have rediscovered an extremely rare species of bumblebee in the US, which hasn't been seen since 1956. Cockerell's Bumblebee Cockerell's Bumblebee. Credit: G Ballmer, UC Riverside The find has prompted a lot of excitement due to the concern about bee species disappearing around the world. The bumblebee boffins …

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  1. Alfie
    Thumb Up

    Bumblebee Boffin

    ...and I thought a job title of software toolsmith was cool!

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  2. kain preacher

    Sounds like they found them because they are surviving while other bees are dying of sudden colony collapse.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It warms my heart

    to know that the world still has bumblebee boffins.

    At one point in my childhood, I wanted to be an entomologist --- but a real one told me that, especially post thatcher, most of the jobs were connected with killing insects :-(

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  4. Stevie

    Gah!

    Jesus Christ, how could anyone miss one of those? It's almost as big as my hand!

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  5. Youngone Silver badge
    Happy

    Yay! Bees!

    We here in New Zealand got very excited a couple of years ago when some Bumblebee Boffins from Blighty turned up wanting to catch some specimens of our most common Bumblebees. Turns out they were imports from the old country, and thirved here, whilest becoming somewhat rare back home.

    If I remember correctly we were quite chuffed and told the Boffins to help themselves.

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  6. David Cantrell
    Trollface

    If it hadn't been seen since the Dark Ages (and in biology, 1956 really is the dark ages) how did they know it was a separate species?

    And anyway, who cares, it looks exactly the same as the bees in my garden according to that photo.

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  7. Armando 123

    This is good news.

    One of our neighbors has hives, but the doctor says they'll clear up soon. (But seriously, folks, ...)

    No, he keeps bees and we've asked him about which plants to encourage, discourage, etc etc. Since they tend to keep the wasps and hornets away and encourage our black cheery and sweet crabapple trees to fruit, it's a win-win-win.

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  8. Jimbo 6

    Cheeses Kerrrrist !

    It's the size of a FUCKING RAT !

    How did they not spot that for 55 years ???

    Oh...

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  9. Johnny Canuck

    Did they follow them back to the hive? Unless they can find a whole hive of these critters it could just be a misidentification.

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  10. Charlie van Becelaere
    Boffin

    perhaps no one missed them ...

    according to these folks, they were brought back from the past by a massive time warp or something.

    http://iheardacouplethings.blogspot.com/2011/12/extinct-bees-back-from-dead.html

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