{"id":412812,"date":"2026-01-17T11:20:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412812\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T11:20:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T11:20:21","slug":"scientist-spots-little-bee-in-orchard-and-realizes-shes-incredibly-rare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412812\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientist Spots Little Bee In Orchard \u2014 And Realizes She’s Incredibly Rare"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past summer, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry<\/a> (ESF) ecologist Molly Jacobson was out collecting specimens around ESF\u2019s orchard in Syracuse, New York, when she stumbled on something amazing.<\/p>\n

There, flying among the trees, was a little bee. But this wasn\u2019t just any bee \u2014 she was a chestnut mining bee, an incredibly rare species who\u2019d never been spotted in the area before.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a photo of Jacobsen holding one of the bees. (Don\u2019t worry about the red on her fingers; the scientist told The Dodo that it\u2019s just berry juice!)<\/p>\n

\"womanMolly Jacobson<\/p>\n

According to an ESF press release<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"beeMolly Jacobson<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a significant record,\u201d Jacobson said in the press release. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"beeMolly Jacobson<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discovery of the Chestnut bee showcases the importance of the work that ESF is doing to restore this keystone tree species to the landscape,\u201d ESF president Joanie Mahoney said in the press release. \u201cCongratulations to the ESF Chestnut team on the success of its groundbreaking research.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Researchers<\/a>Researchers Snap ‘Family Portrait’ Of Rare Animals Unseen For 150 Years\u201cIt definitely made our day \u2026\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This past summer, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) ecologist Molly Jacobson was out collecting specimens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[3192,616,192,3191,79,615,613,198004,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-412812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-animal-encounters","9":"tag-daily-dodo","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-maeve-dunigan","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-standard","14":"tag-the-dodo","15":"tag-wild-bees","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}