A rare species of bumblebee thought to be extinct in Michigan was recently rediscovered in Kalamazoo.
The rusty-patched bumblebee was last spotted in Michigan in 1999, according to Michigan State University and was the first bumblebee to receive federal protection, after it was declared endangered in 2017.
But after over 20 years, a dead male specimen turned up in a driveway near Asylum Lake on August 4.
Nathan Rank is a professor of entomology and ecology at Sonoma State University in California. He found the specimen while visiting family in Kalamazoo.
Rank stumbled across it while walking with a friend in the Winchell Neighborhood.
"She said, 'Look at that bee in the driveway.' And we bent over to take a look at the bee and it was dead," Rank said.
"But it was also clear that it was freshly dead."
Rank took the specimen to his alma mater, Kalamazoo College, which was able to confirm it was indeed a rusty-patched bumblebee, identifiable by the rusty-colored hairs on its abdomen.
"I think it's a good sign that the potential is there for this bee to return. Maybe it already has. Maybe this was a lone colonist who represents maybe a wave of the future, if the climate is favorable and if we continue to reduce our use of the kinds of pesticides that harm these bees most. We may see a return," Rank said.
Further analysis also showed that it was male, which Rank said could point to a potential reproducing population in the Kalamazoo area.
"The fact that it was a male suggests that it was someone from this summer and it might have been someone who mated and then died. So, if that's true, then there was a queen to mate with and potentially there could be a nest nearby."
Rank added that Kalamazoo College will be conducting further research to determine how it died and where it came from.
According to Michigan State University, the endangered bumblebee species was last spotted in Kalamazoo County half a century ago in 1975.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
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