A colony of ground-nesting bees estimated at roughly 5.5 million individuals has been discovered under a cemetery in New York, making it one of the largest bee aggregations scientists have ever documented.
The bees were identified as Andrena regularis, commonly known as the regular mining bee, a solitary wild bee species that nests underground and plays an important role in pollinating crops and wild plants.
Researchers say the colony, located across 1.5 acres of East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca, has likely persisted for more than a century, Good News Network reported.
The reports added that the discovery began with a chance observation in the spring of 2022 by Rachel Fordyce, who worked in a Cornell University entomology laboratory at the time.
While walking through the cemetery on her way to work, she noticed an unusually large number of bees.
A colony of ground-nesting bees estimated at roughly 5.5 million individuals has been discovered under a cemetery in New York, making it one of the largest bee aggregations scientists have ever documented. The bees were identified as Andrena regularis, commonly known as the regular mining bee, a solitary wild bee species that nests underground and plays an important role in pollinating crops and wild plants.
Researchers say the colony, located across 1.5 acres of East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca, has likely persisted for more than a century, Good News Network reported.
The reports added that the discovery began with a chance observation in the spring of 2022 by Rachel Fordyce, who worked in a Cornell University entomology laboratory at the time. While walking through the cemetery on her way to work, she noticed an unusually large number of bees.
