7 replies to this topic

[ConcordAntman]

FYI, last spring OSU had a quite successful webinar that ended in November. Yesterday I got an email announcing a Bumblebee course starting March 18th.  

 

https://u.osu.edu/th...beeshortcourse/

[ConcordAntman]

This is the third installment of this spring’s course. It was on ID’ing eastern and western bumblebee species with 90 minutes for each session. The use of field guides, color templates, and microscopic identification tools were reviewed. Really excellent presentations. Likns to the recorded sessions will be available here:

https://u.osu.edu/th...beeshortcourse/

For those interested, Lincoln Best, the presenter for the western Bumblebee ID’ing lecture, mentioned an online course offered through Oregon State to become a master melittologist:

https://extension.or...r-melittologist

[ANTdrew]

Awesome!

[ConcordAntman]

There was an interesting webinar this week on Bumble Bee Botany by Randy Mitchell from The University of Akron. It was a discussion on the synergy between the bumblebee and the flowers they forage. The recorded webinars for the course are available here:

https://u.osu.edu/th...rse/recordings/

[ConcordAntman]

Another good though sobering webinar yesterday. Hollis Woodard, professor at UC Riverside presented a 90 minute talk on Bumblebee Threats and Opportunities for Conservation. She enumerated the loss in biodiversity while pointing out that there are some species that are thriving. She ended with highlighting mechanisms for conservation. The recordings of all the talks is available here:

https://u.osu.edu/th...rse/recordings/

[ConcordAntman]

The lecture series sadly has drawn to an end but it ends on a high note. Sam Droege and his undergraduate student Jenan El-Hifnawi presented on the Plant-Bumblebee interaction and introduced a community scientist based flower survey directed at discovering bumblebee’s flower preferences. The goal being to identify the preferred foraging flower as a tool for fostering declining species or encouraging species already present. The links are available here:

https://u.osu.edu/th...rse/recordings/

 

There’s also information under the resources tab:

https://u.osu.edu/th...urse/resources/

[ANTdrew]

I met Sam Droege a few years ago at a lecture.

[ConcordAntman]

He’s been a presenter in last year’s course and this year as well. He’s incredibly knowledgeable and animated. The undergrad that’s behind this Bee/Plant preference survey seems knowledgeable too. The course seemed shorter this year than last but still quite informative. There’s also Bumbleee Watch

https://www.bumblebeewatch.org/

 

Join, take pictures of the bumblebees in your area and submit them!