Virginia’s vanishing bee: State works to save rusty patched bumble bee

This summer, still lacking Fish and Wildlife approval, as well as seven other permits, Dominion and Duke canceled the Atlantic Coast project. The bee, along with three other endangered or threatened species with populations in the pipeline’s path, had won.

Still, it was a paper victory. Only 6% of the pipeline was ever built. And so the project’s demise left unchanged the rusty patched bumble bee’s perilous position. Even as scientists race to discover what factors are driving its demise, the population continues to shrink.

Until the last decades of the 20th century, the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) could be found in 28 states, from Maine to northern Georgia and as far west as the Dakotas.

Like many other bee species, the rusty patched lives in large colonies, sometimes as many as 1,000 strong, led by queens. The bee has an unusually long life cycle, emerging early in the spring and remaining active until late fall, when it overwinters in cavities in the ground. A “generalist” pollinator, it isn’t discriminating when it comes to food, browsing on such common plants as thistle, red clover, bee balm and goldenrod.

More notably, the rusty patched bumble bee is one of a group of species that can “buzz pollinate,” a pollination technique where it grabs onto a plant and then vibrates its body at a high frequency to shake loose tightly packed pollen that might otherwise be difficult to access. Not all bees buzz pollinate — honeybees, for example, don’t. But buzz pollination is essential for the reproduction of a range of plants, including crops like blueberries, apples and tomatoes.