Cockerell's Bumblebee. (Credit: G. Ballmer, UC Riverside)

While news related to species loss seems almost always seem to be coming in at us like floodlights, occasionally there is a glimmer of hope shining outward in the headlines:

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011) — A team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside recently rediscovered the rarest species of bumblebee in the United States, last seen in 1956, living in the White Mountains of south-central New Mexico.

Go bee!

…there are nearly 50 species of native U.S. bumblebees, including a few on the verge of extinction, such as the species known as “Franklin’s Bumblebee,” which has been seen only once since 2003. That species, as rare as it is, is known from a distribution covering some 13,000 square miles, whereas Cockerell’s Bumblebee is known from an area of less than 300 square miles, giving it the most limited range of any bumblebee species in the world.

Go!