Bees of the World
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Decades of investigation into bees give a legendary researcher insight into challenges faced by the vital pollinators today.
Aired September 10, 2007
2 minutes (1.8 MB) | Download mp3
Transcript
A legendary researcher updates his classic book on bees.From the University of Kansas, this is Research Matters. I'm Brendan Lynch.
When KU professor emeritus Charles Michener first published a major work on bees, the vital pollinators weren't making any headlines. The year was 1939.
Michener: "When I was a kid in Southern California, I collected insects and I drew pictures. First I drew pictures of flowers, and then later of insects. And so by the time I reached the university stage I was already fairly sophisticated at identifying California bees. So you see I stared early."
Michener - who recently penned a new edition of his classic book Bees of the World - brings his eight decades of research to bear on issues of today, like colony collapse disorder.
Michener: "Honey bees in North America and also some other places are abandoning their colonies and dying. So that beekeepers put their colonies up for winter, think they’re coming back and have hundreds of colonies in the spring. And they wind up with a few dozen. Otherwise a lot empty hives. At this point, no one knows if it’s a disease or some reaction to pesticides, or something else."
Michener says wild bee populations are dropping as well, potentially a much larger problem.
Michener: "Wild bees are in decline in many parts of the world. In some areas, it’s fairly obvious that the destruction of natural habitats so that the diversity of flowers on which they’re dependent has disappeared. If you plant square miles of corn, there are very few flowers for bees to feed on. But another thing is that bees, even in wild, habitats are in many places less common or certain species are less common."
For more information on Charles Michener and the bees of the world, log on to Research Matters DOT K-U DOT E-D-U.
From the University of Kansas, I'm Brendan Lynch.
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Legendary KU researcher updates his classic book ‘The Bees of the World’
LAWRENCE — When Charles D. Michener first published a major work on bees, the vital pollinators were not making many headlines. The year was 1939.
