Department News

Bob Minckley explains the San Bernardino Valley is home to 500 bee species - a record

September 23, 2021

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research, Bob Minckley, a professor of instruction in the Department of Biology, and Bill Radke, manager of the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, found that 497 species of bees live within just over six square miles of the San Bernardino Valley, a modest area for such a study—10 times smaller than Washington, DC. “The density of bees there is astronomical—far and away higher than anywhere else in the world that’s been carefully studied,” says Minckley.