Can You Pick the Bees Out of This Insect Lineup?<br />“Everyone knew that bees were good, but even though they know that they’re good, most people had no idea how many kinds of bees live here.”<br />Tell us approximately how many different bee species you think there are in the United States.<br />But, however much we may value bees, we don’t know much about their diversity.<br />Since 2006, when researchers coined the phrase “colony collapse disorder” to describe the losses to commercial honeybee colonies, scientists, conservation groups, the government<br />and news media have issued warnings of declining bee populations and the necessity of conserving these economically and ecologically significant pollinators.<br />And knowing at least a bit about the diversity of bees — each with their own habitats, behaviors, shapes<br />and sizes — is crucial to efforts to save them, Dr. Wilson said.<br />Habitat loss and pesticides may threaten these wild bees,<br />but it’s unclear how much their numbers are changing, despite conservation reports warning of their decline
