This past summer, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) ecologist Molly Jacobson was out collecting specimens around ESF’s orchard in Syracuse, New York, when she stumbled on something amazing.
There, flying among the trees, was a little bee. But this wasn’t just any bee — she was a chestnut mining bee, an incredibly rare species who’d never been spotted in the area before.
Here’s a photo of Jacobsen holding one of the bees. (Don’t worry about the red on her fingers; the scientist told The Dodo that it’s just berry juice!)
Molly Jacobson
According to an ESF press release, chestnut mining bees are ground-nesting insects who exclusively pollinate chestnut and chinquapin flowers. These bees lived in New York until the early 1900s, when a chestnut blight killed large swaths of chestnut trees, harming local pollinators and driving them away.
The press release notes that, before recent sightings, chestnut mining bees were last seen in southern New York in 1904. Decades passed with no trace, and many scientists assumed the bees had completely vanished.
Molly Jacobson
However, in 2023, Jacobsen rediscovered the bees at the Lasdon Park and Arboretum, marking the first sighting in the state in over a century. Two years later, Jacobsen was about 200 miles north, at the orchard in Syracuse, when she spotted the bees again. This was the first time anyone had ever seen them north of the Hudson Valley.
“This is a significant record,” Jacobson said in the press release. “It expands the known range of the bee in New York and shows promise for its persistence in managed orchards, even in urban settings like Syracuse.”
Molly Jacobson
For years, ESF scientists have planted chestnut trees in the area as part of their chestnut restoration project, hoping the trees will attract pollinators and other important missing species. This sighting proves their labor is paying off.
“The discovery of the Chestnut bee showcases the importance of the work that ESF is doing to restore this keystone tree species to the landscape,” ESF president Joanie Mahoney said in the press release. “Congratulations to the ESF Chestnut team on the success of its groundbreaking research.”
