{"id":177558,"date":"2026-02-14T05:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/177558\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T05:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T05:24:12","slug":"meet-the-tiny-bees-of-southern-california-krystle-hickmans-quest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/177558\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the tiny bees of Southern California: Krystle Hickman’s quest"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 In the arid, cracked desert ground in Southern California, a tiny bee pokes its head out of a hole no larger than the tip of a crayon.<\/p>\n

Krystle Hickman crouches over with her specialized camera fitted to capture the minute details of the bee\u2019s antennae and fuzzy behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my gosh, you are so cute,\u201d Hickman murmurs before the female sweat bee flies away.<\/p>\n

Hickman is on a quest to document hundreds of species of native bees, which are under threat by climate change and habitat loss, some of it caused by the more recognizable and agriculturally valued honey bee \u2014 an invasive species. Of the roughly 4,000 types of bees native to North America, Hickman has photographed over 300. For about 20 of them, she\u2019s the first to ever photograph them alive.<\/p>\n

Through photography, she wants to raise awareness about the importance of native bees to the survival of the flora and fauna around them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaving the bees means saving their entire ecosystems,\u201d Hickman said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Photographer<\/p>\n

Photographer Krystle Hickman photographs wild bees as desert sunflowers blanket the valley floor at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo\/Damian Dovarganes)<\/p>\n

Photographer Krystle Hickman photographs wild bees as desert sunflowers blanket the valley floor at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo\/Damian Dovarganes)<\/p>\n

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Community scientists play important role in observing bees<\/p>\n

On a Saturday in January, Hickman walked among the early wildflower bloom at Anza Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, a few hundred miles southeast of Los Angeles, where clumps of purple verbena and patches of white primrose were blooming unusually early due to a wet winter.<\/p>\n

Where there are flowers, there are bees.<\/p>\n

Hickman has no formal science education and dropped out of a business program that she hated. But her passion for bees and keen observation skills made her a good community scientist, she said. In October, she published a book documenting California\u2019s native bees, partly supported by National Geographic. She\u2019s conducted research supported by the University of California, Irvine, and hopes to publish research notes this year on some of her discoveries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re filling in a lot of gaps,\u201d she said of the role community scientists play in contributing knowledge alongside academics.<\/p>\n

On a given day, she might spend 16 hours waiting beside a plant, watching as bees wake up and go about their business. They pay her no attention.<\/p>\n

Originally from Nebraska, Hickman moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She began photographing honey bees in 2018, but soon realized native bees were in greater danger.<\/p>\n

Now, she\u2019s a bee scientist full time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI really think anyone could do this,\u201d Hickman said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This photo, provided by Krystle Hickman, shows a Perdita californica male bee on May, 1, 2025 at Orange Hills Regional Park in Orange, Calif. (Krystle Hickman via AP)<\/p>\n

This photo, provided by Krystle Hickman, shows a Perdita californica male bee on May, 1, 2025 at Orange Hills Regional Park in Orange, Calif. (Krystle Hickman via AP)<\/p>\n

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A different approach<\/p>\n

Melittologists, or people who study bees, have traditionally used pan trapping to collect and examine dead bee specimens. To officially log a new species, scientists usually must submit several bees to labs, Hickman said.<\/p>\n

There can be small anatomical differences between species that can\u2019t be photographed, such as the underside of a bee, Hickman said.<\/p>\n

But Hickman is vehemently against capturing bees. She worries about harming already threatened species. Unofficially, she thinks she\u2019s photographed at least four previously undescribed species.<\/p>\n

Hickman said she\u2019s angered \u201ca few melittologists before because I won\u2019t tell them where things are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her approach has helped her forge a path as a bee behavior expert.<\/p>\n

During her trip to Anza Borrego, Hickman noted that the bees won\u2019t emerge from their hideouts until around 10 a.m., when the desert begins to heat up. They generally spend 20 minutes foraging and 10 minutes back in their burrows to offload pollen, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really shockingly easy to make new behavioral discoveries just because no one\u2019s looking at insects alive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hickman still works closely with other melittologists, often sending them photos for identification and discussing research ideas.<\/p>\n

Christine Wilkinson, assistant curator of community science at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, said Hickman was a perfect example of why it\u2019s important to incorporate different perspectives in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many different ways of knowing and relating to the world,\u201d Wilkinson said. \u201cGetting engaged as a community scientist can also get people interested in and passionate about really making change.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Photographer<\/p>\n

Photographer Krystle Hickman walks in a field of wildflowers while photographing wild bees at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo\/Damian Dovarganes)<\/p>\n

Photographer Krystle Hickman walks in a field of wildflowers while photographing wild bees at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo\/Damian Dovarganes)<\/p>\n

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Declining native bees<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a critically endangered bee that Hickman is particularly determined to find \u2014 Bombus franklini, or Franklin\u2019s bumblebee, last seen in 2006.<\/p>\n

Since 2021, she\u2019s traveled annually to the Oregon-California border to look for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s quite a few people who think it\u2019s extinct, but I\u2019m being really optimistic about it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Habitat loss, as well as competition from honey bees, have made it harder for native bees to survive. Many native bees will only drink the nectar or eat the pollen of a specific plant. <\/p>\n

Because of her success in tracking down bees, she\u2019s now working with various universities and community groups to help find lost species, which are bees that haven\u2019t been documented in the wild for at least a decade.<\/p>\n

Hickman often finds herself explaining to audiences why native bees are important. They don\u2019t make honey, and the disappearance of a few bees might not have an apparent impact on humans.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut things that live here, they deserve to live here. And that should be a good enough reason to protect them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 In the arid, cracked desert ground in Southern California, a tiny bee pokes its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2113,71493,7,9,8,5881,18,47,434,561,545,645,71825,17,5879],"class_list":{"0":"post-177558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-bees","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-climate-and-environment","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-north-america","17":"tag-or-state-wire","18":"tag-oregon","19":"tag-science","20":"tag-send-to-apple-news","21":"tag-u-s-news","22":"tag-zoology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}