By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – We need more pollinators, according to the chair of the University of Illinois Department of Entomology.
There’s a shortage of bees, and May Berenbaum is only too happy to serve as their publicity agent.
“Most people have a generally negative view of insects,” Berenbaum says, “but people don’t really appreciate just how much we humans depend on insects for many of the biological processes that make the world a livable place. And one of the most important of these ecosystem services is pollination.
“More than ninety percent of the planet’s flowering plants depend on an animal partner for pollination and reproduction.”
In this case, that animal partner is the bee.
Compounding the problem, says Berenbaum, bees and the bee shortage do not turn up very much in the news. In contrast: many more stories are about Illinois’ state insect, the Monarch butterfly.
“Monarch butterflies that develop along the fields and roadsides in central Illinois are among a group of adult butterflies that return to a single place – in Mexico. That’s where all of the Monarchs along the Eastern seaboard travel to spend the winter,” says Berenbaum.
Her study is called No Buzz for Bees.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].
