Decline in insect populations

[kassy]

Alarming long-term effects of insecticides weaken ant colonies

...

But so far, no data existed to show how exposure to low concentrations, which do not induce direct mortality, affect ants in the long run. The data, collected at the University of Bern in cooperation with Agroscope and the University of Neuchâtel, clearly demonstrate previously overlooked long-term effects, which are not detectable during the first year of colony development. The results are published in "Communications Biology", an Open-Access Journal of Nature. According to the authors, this study highlights the importance to develop sustainable agricultural practices that incorporate reduced use of agro-chemicals to prevent irreparable damages to natural ecosystems.

Worrying long-term impacts

Thiamethoxam has a clear negative impact on the health of ants. Thiamethoxam is a neonicotinoid insecticide used to combat pest insects that threaten our harvest. Unfortunately, there is more and more evidence showing that thiamethoxam and similar agro-chemicals have negative consequences for other beneficial insects, including ants and honey bees.

...

In the present work, colonies of black garden ants were chronically exposed to field realistic concentrations of thiamethoxam over 64 weeks. Colonies were raised in the laboratory from queens that were captured in the field. Before the first overwintering of the colonies no effect of neonicotinoid exposure on colony strength was visible. However, until the second overwintering it became apparent that colonies exposed to thiamethoxam were significantly smaller than control colonies. Because the number of workers is a very important factor for the success of an ant colony, the observed effects are most likely to compromise colony survivorship. Considering the important role of ants in natural ecosystems, our results indicate that neonicotinoids impose a threat to ecosystem functioning.

...

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-07/uob-ale070120.php

Long-term effects of neonicotinoid insecticides on ants
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-1066-2

[kassy]

About 94 per cent of wild bee and native plant species networks lost


Climate change and an increase in disturbed bee habitats from expanding agriculture and development in northeastern North America over the last 30 years are likely responsible for a 94 per cent loss of plant-pollinator networks, York University researchers found.

The researchers, corresponding author Professor Sandra Rehan of the Faculty of Science and grad student Minna Mathiasson of the University of New Hampshire, looked at plant-pollinator networks from 125 years ago through present day. The networks are comprised of wild bees and the native plants they historically rely on, although most of those have now been disrupted.

About 30 per cent of plant-pollinator networks were completely lost, which translates to a disappearance of either the bees, the plants or both. In another 64 per cent of the network loss, the wild bees, such as sweat or miner bees, or native plants, such as sumac and willow, are still present in the eco-system, but the bees no longer visit those plants. The association is gone.

The remaining six per cent of the plant-pollinator networks are stable or even thriving with pollinators such as small carpenter bees, which like broken stems for nest making.

"There are several reasons for the losses in the networks. Climate change is likely the biggest driver. We know that over the last 100 years or so annual temperatures have changed by two and a half degrees. This is enough to alter the time when certain native plants bloom," says Rehan.

"For a bee that's out for months on end or is a generalist pollinator, this isn't such a critical mismatch, but for a bee that's only out for two weeks of the year and only has a few floral hosts, this could be devastating." An increase in non-native species of bees and invasive species of plants, which have displaced some of the native species, is another reason for the decline in networks.

...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200716144740.htm

[Alexander555]

Some more stuff about te bees. I'm going to see if i can get some more bees over here. https://watchers.news/2020/07/30/bee-population-decline-threatens-major-crop-yields-in-u-s-and-global-food-security/

[Alexander555]

I placed a home like this for the humblebees. What could i do extra for them, besides extra flowers ? https://www.tuinadvies.be/tuinwinkel/product/2256/hommel-kweekbak-professioneel

[vox_mundi]

Bumblebee Habitats and Diets Change Over Their Lifecycle
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-bumblebee-habitats-diets-lifecycle.html

Bumblebees change their home ranges and dietary preferences after establishing nests, suggesting that diversified landscapes help support bee populations as their needs change during different phases of their lifecycle.

Cavigliasso P, Phifer CC, Adams EM, Flaspohler D, Gennari GP, Licata JA, et al. (2020) Spatio-temporal dynamics of landscape use by the bumblebee Bombus pauloensis (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and its relationship with pollen provisioning. PLoS ONE 15(7): e0216190
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0216190

-------------------------------

Observe what the bee's preference are.

Provide blooms during each season

Here in Connecticut these are the flowers most visited by bumblebees at our community garden

Blueberries - spring
Grape hyacinth - spring
Catmint - Spring
Thyme - spring
Borage - summer
Salvia - late spring
Echinacea - summer
Tomatoes - summer
Squash, cucumbers - summer
St John's wort - summer
Agastache - summer, fall
Joe Pye weed - summer
Milkweed - summer
Sunflowers - summer
Butterfly bush - summer fall
Oregano summer fall
Mint - summer fall
Zinnias - summer fall
Goldenrod - fall
Asters - fall

Don't expect the bumblebee queen to stay in the box if your winters are freezing.

I was a beekeeper in the 90's and 00's

[Alexander555]

We do have freezing in winter. But for what i can find on the internet the bumblebees are  the bees that can handle the cold the best. Do you maybe know when they use a tunnel below the surface as a nest. Do they have like several tunnels for ventilation, or would it just be one tunnel. Or is the nest a little more sophisticated ? The box is developed by bumblebees specialists, and they made a few little holes in the back for ventilation. I was thinking about doing a little experiment. I buy a 2th box, and i dig him in as much as possible. I put sand on top of it, and only keep the entree open. That should protect it a little better against the cold. But should i do something with the ventilation holes ? Maybe straws to the surface.

[vox_mundi]

Bumblebees are tough, but not invincible.

A bumblebee queen does not overwinter in the nest. They overwinter in burrows beneath leaf litter or in brush piles. They will be several cm deep, near or below the frost line in dry soil. They may use abandoned mice/vole nests. Their metabolism is so slow during winter that ventalation is usually not a problem.

In spring, a mated queen emerges from her overwintering site, searches for a spot to nest, and works alone to raise a first cohort of worker daughters. The colony grows over several months, producing successive cohorts of workers before switching to produce males and new queens. In mid‐ to late summer, newly mated queens seek sheltered sites where they overwinter.

Rinse; repeat.

Habitat determines both location.

Nectar and pollen near the colony nest
Dry, unfrozen, leaf litter for overwinter site.

Bumblebees start their year early. I've seen them at flowers early march, anytime it's above 8-10°C.

Honeybees will be out earlier because they can return to the colony and warm up. I've seen honeybees on my Snowdrops on clear sunny days in January

[vox_mundi]

Insect Armageddon: Low Doses of the Insecticide, Imidacloprid, Cause Blindness In Insects
https://phys.org/news/2020-09-insect-armageddon-doses-insecticide-imidacloprid.html

New research has identified a mechanism by which low levels of insecticides such as, the neonicotinoid Imidacloprid, could harm the nervous, metabolic and immune system of insects, including those that are not pests, such as our leading pollinators, bees.

A study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, led by researchers at the University of Melbourne and Baylor College of Medicine, shows that low doses of Imidacloprid trigger neurodegeneration and disrupt vital body-wide functions, including energy production, vision, movement and the immune system, in the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster.

With insect populations declining around the world and intense use of insecticides suspected to play a role, the findings provide important evidence that even small doses of insecticides reduce the capacity of insects to survive, even those that are not pests.

"Our research was conducted on one insecticide, but there is evidence that other insecticides cause oxidative stress, so they may have similar [or synergistic] impacts"

The researchers arrived at the findings by studying the effects of Imidacloprid in vinegar fly larvae. In the field, the insecticide is generally used at concentrations of up to 2,800 parts per million (ppm). In the lab, researchers tested lower doses, identifying that the very small dose 2.5 ppm was enough to reduce the movement of fly larvae by 50 percent after just two hours of exposure.



"That's an indication of the impact of the insecticide on the function of the brain," ... "From there, the accumulation of massive amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free radicals inside the brain triggers a cascade of damaging events that spread to many other tissues."

Researchers also tested the insecticide on adult flies, finding that flies exposed to very low doses (4 ppm) over 25 days became blind and developed movement problems that affected their ability to climb, symptomatic of neurodegeneration in other parts of the brain.



Felipe Martelli el al., "Low doses of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid induce ROS triggering neurological and metabolic impairments in Drosophila," PNAS (2020)
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/09/25/2011828117

[Alexander555]

At least the mosquitos seem to do well. A new virus is spreading, transmitted by mosquito's. And it seems to be a pretty big area. So it's not looking very well for the rest of the insects. If the risk from a mosquito bite just gets bigger. More chemical stuff will be sprayed on every tourist. And that sounds like a virus paradise. The collaps of biodiversity will only continue. https://sputniknews.com/india/202009291080605436-new-threat-in-sight-indian-medics-warn-of-another-virus-outbreak-in-china/

[Alexander555]

A few weeks ago they discovered salmonella in the place where i work. Would things like this also be related to the loss of insects, biodiversity ? Now we have the salmonella hotzone, and the covid-19 restrictions at the same time. And we had many salmonella  infections the last months, in other places.

[kassy]

I don´t think so. Bacteria and insects are quite different.

[vox_mundi]

Two Pesticides Approved for Use in US Harmful to Bees
https://phys.org/news/2020-09-pesticides-bees.html

A previously banned insecticide, which was approved for agricultural use last year in the United States, is harmful for bees and other beneficial insects that are crucial for agriculture, and a second pesticide in widespread use also harms these insects. That is according to a new analysis from researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

As the agricultural industry turns to new types of pesticides to protect crops, the biologists behind the recent large-scale meta-analysis warn that two of these—flupyradifurone (sold under the brand name Sivanto) and the recently approved pesticide sulfoxaflor (sold under the name Transform WG)—have harmful effects similar to a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, several of which were recently banned in the European Union and Canada. Neonicotinoid pesticides have been shown to be detrimental to honeybees and other beneficial insects.

It is clear that these insecticides are harmful to bees," Muth said. She noted that regulators made decisions before scientists had completed all of the research included in the meta-analysis.

In addition to harming honeybees, the insecticides also showed signs of harming other beneficial insects, such as wild bumblebees and lacewings, according to the research.

In addition to increasing mortality in bees, the insecticides had some less than lethal effects, such as reducing reproductive ability and making pollinators less efficient foragers.

"So much of the regulatory process is focused on looking at toxicity, meaning how much of the insecticide you need to kill an insect," Siviter said. "And what research has found over the last decade is that these insecticides can have a lot of sub-lethal effects on pollinators, influencing things like foraging ability or a bee's ability to reproduce. These effects need to be considered in the regulatory process as well, because that can affect survival."

Harry Siviter et al, Do novel insecticides pose a threat to beneficial insects?, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2020)
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.1265

[vox_mundi]

when the pollinators are gone this is what is left ...

Hand Pollination, Not Agrochemicals, Increases Cocoa Yield and Farmer Income
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-pollination-agrochemicals-cocoa-yield-farmer.html

A research team from the University of Göttingen has investigated the relative importance of the use of pesticides, fertilizers and manual pollination in a well replicated field trial in Indonesian agroforestry systems. The result: an increase in both cocoa yield and farming income was achieved—not by agrochemicals, but by manual pollination. The study was published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.

Cocoa requires cross-pollination by insects to produce fruit. It is unclear how to encourage natural pollination by tiny midges, flies or wasps. In fact, the true identity of the main pollinators has yet to be discovered. Under natural conditions, more than 90% of flowers are not visited by insects and do not develop fruit. These results clearly show that traditional agricultural intensification with agrochemicals is not always the best way forward.

Working together with colleagues and students of the Indonesian University of Tadulako of Palu, the scientists found that hand pollination increased the yield of cocoa trees by 161%. After deducting the costs of manual pollination, this meant a 69% increase in income for small-holder farmers. Using more pesticide and fertilizer did not increase yields.

Manuel Toledo-Hernández et al, Hand pollination, not pesticides or fertilizers, increases cocoa yields and farmer income, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2020)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880920303467

[kassy]

Damn that is sad. 

[Alexander555]

when the pollinators are gone this is what is left ...

Hand Pollination, Not Agrochemicals, Increases Cocoa Yield and Farmer Income
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-pollination-agrochemicals-cocoa-yield-farmer.html

A research team from the University of Göttingen has investigated the relative importance of the use of pesticides, fertilizers and manual pollination in a well replicated field trial in Indonesian agroforestry systems. The result: an increase in both cocoa yield and farming income was achieved—not by agrochemicals, but by manual pollination. The study was published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.

Cocoa requires cross-pollination by insects to produce fruit. It is unclear how to encourage natural pollination by tiny midges, flies or wasps. In fact, the true identity of the main pollinators has yet to be discovered. Under natural conditions, more than 90% of flowers are not visited by insects and do not develop fruit. These results clearly show that traditional agricultural intensification with agrochemicals is not always the best way forward.

Working together with colleagues and students of the Indonesian University of Tadulako of Palu, the scientists found that hand pollination increased the yield of cocoa trees by 161%. After deducting the costs of manual pollination, this meant a 69% increase in income for small-holder farmers. Using more pesticide and fertilizer did not increase yields.

Manuel Toledo-Hernández et al, Hand pollination, not pesticides or fertilizers, increases cocoa yields and farmer income, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2020)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880920303467

May the cacao is not in his natural place, if 90 % is not visited by insects. Or maybe they don't have the right insects anymore. When i watch the bees over here, they just jump from flower to flower. They don't scip one of them.

[vox_mundi]

Current Chernobyl-Level Radiation Harmful to Bees: Study
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-current-chernobyl-level-bees.html

Bumblebees exposed to levels of radiation found within the Chernobyl exclusion zone suffered a "significant" drop in reproduction, in new research published Wednesday that scientists say should prompt a rethink of international calculations of nuclear environmental risk.

Researchers in Scotland and Germany exposed bee colonies in a laboratory setting to a range of radiation levels found in areas of the exclusion zone around the ruined Chernobyl site, where a reactor exploded in 1986 in the world's worst nuclear disaster.

They found that colony reproduction reduced by 30 to 45 percent at doses previously considered too low to impact insects.

Katherine E. Raines et al. Chernobyl-level radiation exposure damages bumblebee reproduction: a laboratory experiment, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2020)
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.1638

... cockroaches, on the other hand, are doing fine.

[vox_mundi]

First Murder Hornet Nest Had 200 Queens Capable of Spawning New Nests
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/10/murder-hornet-nest-queens-washington

When scientists in Washington state destroyed the first nest of so-called murder hornets found in the US, they discovered about 500 live specimens in various stages of development, officials said Tuesday.

Inside, researchers found:

• 190 total larvae that developed from eggs.
• 108 pupae, the next stage after larvae. They were nearly all queens.
• 112 workers, which included 85 workers previously vacuumed out of the nest.
• 76 queens, nearly all of them virgin queens. New queens emerge from the nest, mate and then leave to find a place to spend winter and later start a new colony.

Most of the specimens were still alive when the nest was opened, among them nearly 200 queens that had the potential to start their own nests, said Sven-Erik Spichiger, an entomologist leading the fight to kill the hornets.

Still, scientists think other nests already exist and say it’s impossible to know if any queens escaped before the first nest was destroyed. Each nest can destroy several honeybee colonies.

[Alexander555]

I'm doing some gardening now. And what i learned so far is probably a good explanation why insects are declining so fast. I was looking for what i need to let something grow, the nutrients. And the  conclusion is that you can do it the biological way, compost with fungi and bacteria to release the nutrients from your compost. Or mechanical work with fertiliser, and that kills your soil. So we kill all live in 600 000 square kilometers of soil every year, extra. On top of what was above that soil. And that will probably continue for dozens of years , with 80 million people extra every year. How are they going to solve that ? Everything is large scale production.

[harpy]

I'm doing some gardening now. And what i learned so far is probably a good explanation why insects are declining so fast. I was looking for what i need to let something grow, the nutrients. And the  conclusion is that you can do it the biological way, compost with fungi and bacteria to release the nutrients from your compost. Or mechanical work with fertiliser, and that kills your soil. So we kill all live in 600 000 square kilometers of soil every year, extra. On top of what was above that soil. And that will probably continue for dozens of years , with 80 million people extra every year. How are they going to solve that ? Everything is large scale production.

The solution does not exist.

[Tom_Mazanec]

How Non-Native Plants Are Contributing to a Global Insect Decline
https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-non-native-plants-are-contributing-to-a-global-insect-decline

The impact of introduced plants on native biodiversity has emerged as a hot-button issue in ecology. But recent research provides new evidence that the displacement of native plant communities is a key cause of a collapse in insect populations and is affecting birds as well.

One year on: Insects still in peril as world struggles with global pandemic
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/one-year-on-insects-still-in-peril-as-world-struggles-with-global-pandemic/

In June 2019, in response to media outcry and alarm over a supposed ongoing global “Insect Apocalypse,” Mongabay published a thorough four-part survey on the state of the world’s insect species and their populations.
In four, in-depth stories, science writer Jeremy Hance interviewed 24 leading entomologists and other scientists on six continents and working in 12 nations to get their expert views on the rate of insect decline in Europe, the U.S., and especially the tropics, including Latin America, Africa, and Australia.
Now, 16 months later, Hance reaches out to seven of those scientists to see what’s new. He finds much bad news: butterflies in Ohio declining by 2% per year, 94% of wild bee interactions with native plants lost in New England, and grasshopper abundance falling by 30% in a protected Kansas grassland over 20 years.
Scientists say such losses aren’t surprising; what’s alarming is our inaction. One researcher concludes: “Real insect conservation would mean conserving large whole ecosystems both from the point source attacks, AND the overall blanket of climate change and six billion more people on the planet than there should be.”

[be cause]

normally by this time of year I have encountered  hundreds of queen wasps looking for or in places to hibernate . This year , not one ! Every month this spring and summer had at least one major storm . These have devastated breeding in local birds from rooks to gold finches . I guess one of them did for the wasps too . b.c.

[vox_mundi]

Insect Populations Suffering Death by 1,000 Cuts, Say Scientists
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/11/insect-populations-suffering-death-1000-cuts-scientists

... The 12 new studies are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Nature is under siege [and] most biologists agree that the world has entered its sixth mass extinction event,” concludes the lead analysis in the package. “Insects are suffering from ‘death by a thousand cuts’ [and] severe insect declines can potentially have global ecological and economic consequences.”

Prof David Wagner of the University of Connecticut in the US, the lead author of the analysis, said the abundance of many insect populations was falling by 1-2% a year, a rate that should not be seen as small: “You’re losing 10-20% of your animals over a single decade and that is just absolutely frightening. You’re tearing apart the tapestry of life.”

Wagner said most of the causes of insect declines were well known. “But there’s one really big unknown and that’s climate change – that’s the one that really scares me the most.” He said increased climate variability could be “driving [insect] extinctions at a rate that we haven’t seen before”.

“Insects are really susceptible to drought because they’re all surface area and no volume,” Wagner said. “Things like dragonflies and damselflies can desiccate to death in an hour with really low humidity.”

One of the studies identifies an increasingly erratic climate as the overarching reason for region-wide losses of moths and other insects in the forests of north-western Costa Rica since 1978. This could be a “harbinger of the broader fate of Earth’s tropical forests”, said Wagner.

Insect Decline In the Anthropocene: Death By a Thousand Cuts
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/2/e2023989118

[vox_mundi]

Monarch Butterfly Population Moves Closer to Extinction
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-monarch-butterfly-population-closer-extinction.html



The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted precipitously to a record low, putting the orange-and-black insects closer to extinction, researchers announced Tuesday.

An annual winter count by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies, a massive decline from the tens of thousands tallied in recent years and the millions that clustered in trees from Northern California's Marin County to San Diego County in the south in the 1980s.

Western monarch butterflies head south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter, returning to the same places and even the same trees, where they cluster to keep warm. The monarchs generally arrive in California at the beginning of November and spread across the country once warmer weather arrives in March.

On the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, another monarch population travels from southern Canada and the northeastern United States across thousands of miles to spend the winter in central Mexico. Scientists estimate the monarch population in the eastern U.S. has fallen about 80% since the mid-1990s, but the drop-off in the western U.S. has been even steeper.

The Xerces Society, a nonprofit environmental organization that focuses on the conservation of invertebrates, recorded about 29,000 butterflies in its annual survey last winter. That was not much different than the tally the winter before, when an all-time low of 27,000 monarchs were counted—less than 1% of historic populations.

But the count this year is dismal. At iconic monarch wintering sites in the city of Pacific Grove, volunteers didn't see a single butterfly this winter. Other well-known locations, such as Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove and Natural Bridges State Park, only hosted a few hundred butterflies, researchers said.

Massive wildfires throughout the U.S. West last year may have influenced their breeding and migration, researchers said.

A 2017 study by Washington State University researchers predicted that if the monarch population dropped below 30,000, the species would likely go extinct in the next few decades if nothing is done to save them.

https://xerces.org/monarchs/western-monarch-conservation


... all gone ...

[vox_mundi]

A Quarter of Known Bee Species Haven't Appeared in Public Records Since the 1990s
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-quarter-bee-species-havent-1990s.html

Researchers at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) in Argentina have found that, since the 1990s, up to 25% of reported bee species are no longer being reported in global records, despite a large increase in the number of records available. While this does not mean that these species are all extinct, it might indicate that these species have become rare enough that no one is observing them in nature. The findings appear January 22 in the journal One Earth.

"With citizen science and the ability to share data, records are going up exponentially, but the number of species reported in these records is going down," says first author Eduardo Zattara, a biologist at the Pollination Ecology Group from the Institute for Research on Biodiversity and the Environment (CONICET-Universidad Nacional del Comahue). "It's not a bee cataclysm yet, but what we can say is that wild bees are not exactly thriving."

In addition to finding that a quarter of total bee species are no longer being recorded, the researchers observed that this decline is not evenly distributed among bee families. Records of halictid bees—the second most common family—have declined by 17% since the 1990s. Those for Melittidae—a much rarer family—have gone down by as much as 41%.

"It's important to remember that 'bee' doesn't just mean honeybees, even though honeybees are the most cultivated species," says Zattara. "Our society's footprint impacts wild bees as well, which provide ecosystem services we depend on."

"It's not really about how certain the numbers are here. It's more about the trend," says Zattara. "It's about confirming what's been shown to happen locally is going on globally. And also, about the fact that much better certainty will be achieved as more data are shared with public databases."

Zattara and Aizen: "Worldwide occurrence records suggest a global decline in bee species richness.", One Earth, (2021)
https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(20)30651-5

[vox_mundi]

Monarch Butterflies Down 26% In Mexico Wintering Grounds
https://phys.org/news/2021-02-monarch-butterflies-mexico-wintering-grounds.html

The number of monarch butterflies that showed up at their winter resting grounds in central Mexico decreased by about 26% this year, and four times as many trees were lost to illegal logging, drought and other causes, making 2020 a bad year for the butterflies.

The government commission for natural protected areas said the butterflies' population covered only 2.1 hectares (5.2 acres) in 2020, compared to 2.8 hectares (6.9 acres) the previous year and about one-third of the 6.05 hectares (14.95 acres) detected in 2018.

Gloria Tavera, the regional director of Mexico's Commission for National Protected Areas, blamed the drop on "extreme climate conditions," the loss of milkweed habitat in the United States and Canada on which butterflies depend, and deforestation in the butterflies' wintering grounds in Mexico.

Illegal logging in the monarchs wintering rounds rose to almost 13.4 hectares (33 acres), a huge increase from the 0.43 hectare (1 acre) lost to logging last year.

In addition, wind storms, drought and the felling of trees that had fallen victim to pine beetles or disease, caused the loss of another 6.9 hectares (17 acres) in the reserve, bringing the total forest loss in 2020 to 20.65 hectares (51 acres). That compares to an overall loss of about 5 hectares (12.3 acres) from all causes the previous year.

Tavera said the drought was affecting the butterflies themselves, as well as the pine and fir trees where the clump together for warmth.

"The severe drought we are experiencing is having effects," Tavera said. "All the forests in the reserve are under water stress, the forests are dry."

"The butterflies are looking for water on the lower slopes, near the houses," she noted.

Tavera also expressed concern about the sever winter storms in Texas, which the butterflies will have to cross—and feed and lay their eggs—on their way back to their northern summer homes in coming months.

"This is a cause for worry," Tavera said, referring to whether the monarchs will find enough food and habitat after the winter freeze.

... The U.S. group Center for Food Safety called for the monarchs to be granted endangered species protection, noting "the minimum population threshold needed to be out of the danger zone of extinction is six hectares."

Millions of monarchs migrate from the U.S. and Canada each year to forests west of Mexico's capital. The butterflies hit a low of just 0.67 hectares (1.66 acres) in 2013-2014.

Loss of habitat, especially the milkweed where the monarchs lay their eggs, pesticide and herbicide use, as well climate change, all pose threats to the species' migration.

While there was plenty of bad news for the butterflies—very few showed up to some historic wintering sites like Sierra Chincua—there was the welcome news that a new wintering site was discovered nearby, in a mountaintop near the Lagunas de Zempoala protected area, near Mexico City.

[kassy]

This happened in Mexico:

In Mexico, 53 local police officers are being questioned over the disappearance of environmental activist Homero Gómez.

Mr Gómez, who manages a butterfly sanctuary in the central town of Ocampo, was last seen on 13 January.

...

Mr Gómez is a tireless campaigner for the conservation of the monarch butterfly and the pine and fir forests where it hibernates.

...

The sanctuary Mr Gómez manages near Ocampo opened in November as part of a strategy to stop illegal logging in the area, which is a key habitat for the monarch butterfly.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51205114

RIP Mr Gómez.

Ofc the next target is the trees...

Illegal logging in the monarchs wintering rounds rose to almost 13.4 hectares (33 acres), a huge increase from the 0.43 hectare (1 acre) lost to logging last year.

 

[vox_mundi]

Pesticide Imidacloprid Threatens Future for Key Pollinator
https://phys.org/news/2021-02-pesticide-imidacloprid-threatens-future-key.html

An insecticide used to control pest infestations on squash and pumpkins significantly hinders the reproduction of ground-nesting bees—valuable pollinators for many food crops, a new University of Guelph study has revealed.

This first-ever study of pesticide impacts on a ground-nesting bee in a real-world context found female hoary squash bees exposed to imidacloprid dug 85 percent fewer nests, collected less pollen from crop flowers and produced 89 percent fewer offspring than unexposed bees.

Chan tested three insecticide treatments: the neonic imidacloprid applied to soil at planting time; the neonic thiamethoxam applied as a seed treatment; and an anthranilic diamide (an emerging non-neonic insecticide) sprayed onto growing plants. A fourth group without insecticides served as a control.


Number of hoary squash bee offspring from nests established by mated female bees in 2017 and 2018.  (Either Admire-imidacloprid, applied to soil at seeding; or Coragen-chlorantraniliprole applied as a foliar spray; or FarMore FI400-thiamethoxam applied as a seed treatment)

... Many species of ground-nesting bees, including the hoary squash bee, are responsible for pollination of numerous fruits, vegetables and oilseed crops in North America, said Chan.

"Solitary ground-nesting bees make up about 70 percent of bee species. It's a really important ecological group and is also really important in crop pollination," she said.

Published recently in Scientific Reports , the study involved three years of monitoring the foraging and nesting behavior of squash bees.

D. Susan Willis Chan et al, Population decline in a ground-nesting solitary squash bee (Eucera pruinosa) following exposure to a neonicotinoid insecticide treated crop (Cucurbita pepo), Scientific Reports (2021)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-83341-7

[vox_mundi]

Colombia's Apiarists Say Avocado Buzz Is Killing Bees
https://phys.org/news/2021-02-colombia-apiarists-avocado-bees.html

Hundreds of hives have been killed off in Colombia in recent years, and some investigations have pointed to fipronil, an insecticide banned for use on crops in Europe and restricted in the United States and China.

It is used to control all manner of insects, including ants and ticks, and has been blamed for several bee massacres around the world.

In Quindio, hive collapse has coincided with the expansion of monoculture in recent decades, according to Faber Sabogal, president of the Asoproabejas beekeepers' organization.

According to the local government, five multinational companies bought large tracts of land in the region between 2016 and 2019 to profit from the growing global appetite for Hass avocados.

Exports skyrocketed from 1.7 tons in 2014 to 44.5 tons in 2019, and this year, Colombia became the largest supplier of the creamy, green delicacy to Europe.

But bees are the collateral damage, becoming contaminated as they buzz through pesticide-treated plantations looking for food, say beekeepers.

"They bring this poison to the hive and kill everyone else," said Salazar.

... Asoproabejas members have videotaped dozens of mass bee die-offs in several regions of Colombia, mainly in the west.

Last year, the state-owned Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) was notified by beekeepers of 256 suspected hive poisonings in Quindio alone.

Some 10 million insects were lost.

ICA regional manager Jorge Garcia said the body examined samples from six apiaries and found that "the fipronil molecule is one of the causes of mortality."

Withdrawing the poison altogether has been difficult "because the companies producing agrochemicals will be affected economically," said Salazar.

Maria Latorre, spokeswoman for Colombia's agrochemical union, said a fipronil ban would provoke "a very negative situation for the productive structure" of the 33 crops that rely on it.

The ICA has denied any link between the expansion of avocado crops in Quindio and the recent decimation of bees.

... "The bee is a bioindicator. If bees are dying, what other insects beneficial to the environment... are dying?".

[vox_mundi]

Butterfly Numbers Plummeting In US West As Climate Crisis Takes Toll
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/04/butterfly-numbers-plummeting-us-west-climate-crisis

The varied, and beautiful, butterfly species that dot the US west are being cut down by the climate crisis, new research has found, with rising temperatures helping cause a steep decline in butterfly numbers over the past 40 years.

There has been a 1.6% reduction in the total number of butterflies observed west of the Rocky Mountain range each year since 1977, researchers calculated, which amounts to a staggering loss of butterflies over the timespan of the study period.

“You extrapolate it and it feels crazy but it’s consistent with the anecdotal ‘windshield effect’ where people aren’t spending time cleaning insects from their car windshields any more,” said Matt Forister, biology professor at the University of Nevada and lead study author.

“Certainly many butterfly species are becoming so rare it’s hard for some people to see what were once widespread, common species.”

The declines are winnowing away much-loved species such as the monarch butterfly, which is known for is spectacular mass migrations to California each year but has lost 99% of its population compared with 40 years ago. “With the monarch it seems we are on the verge of losing the migration, if not the species itself,” Forister said.

The research, published in Science, analyzed citizen-gathered sightings of butterflies in 72 locations spanning all of the western US states. In all, more than 450 butterfly species were included in the study.

Across all of these sightings, the researchers found an annual 1.6% drop in butterfly numbers in the west, which is consistent with the rate of decline of other insects found by researchers in different places around the world, fueling concerns of a deep crisis among the creatures that help supply much of our food, break down waste and form crucial foundations to the web of life.



Fewer butterflies seen by community scientists across the warming and drying landscapes of the American West, Science, (2021)
https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.abe5585