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December 26, 2008












Bob and Thea Pyle with dwarf Agraulis vanillae Koko Crater, Oahu. Photo by Jim Snyder.

Bob and Thea Pyle with dwarf Agraulis vanillae at Koko Crater, Oahu. Photo by Jim Snyder.

Bob Pyle stalking Zizina otis on Waikiki, Oahu. Photo by Jim Snyder.

Bob Pyle stalking Zizina otis on Waikiki, Oahu. Photo by Jim Snyder.

Dorsal view of male Chinese Swallowtail (Papilio xuthus) at Kailua-Kona, photo by Jim Snyder.

Dorsal view of male Chinese Swallowtail (Papilio xuthus) at Kailua-Kona, photo by Jim Snyder.

Hawaiian Blue (Vaga blackburni) at Mana Place on Honolulu, Oahu, photo by Jim Snyder.

Hawaiian Blue (Vaga blackburni) at Mana Place on Honolulu, Oahu, photo by Jim Snyder.

Dorsal view of male Lesser Grass-Blue (Zizina otis) at Waikiki, Hawaii. Photo by Jim Snyder.

Dorsal view of male Lesser Grass-Blue (Zizina otis) at Waikiki, Hawaii. Photo by Jim Snyder.

Larval tents of banana skipper (Erionota thrax) in Kaua'i lowlands.

Larval tents of banana skipper (Erionota thrax) in Kauai. Photo by Thea Linnaea Pyle.

Koke'e naturalist Laura Arnold shows RMP a native Hawai'ian mint.

Koke'e naturalist Laura Arnold shows RMP a native Hawai'ian mint. Photo by Thea Linnaea Pyle.

View of Napali Coast from Kalalau Lookout, with Kalalau Valley (rich in native plants) and beach in background; in foreground, red-flowered ohia trees, on which Blackburn's (= Hawai'ian) blues were nectaring.

View of Napali Coast from Kalalau Lookout, with Kalalau Valley (rich in native plants) and beach in background; in foreground, red-flowered ohia trees, on which Blackburn's blues (=Hawaiian) were nectaring. Photo by Thea Linnaea Pyle.

Falls at the head of Manoa Valley, Lyon Arboretum, where we encountered the Greater Lantana Butterfly.

Falls at the head of Manoa Valley, Lyon Arboretum, where we encountered the Greater Lantana Butterfly. Photo by Thea Linnaea Pyle.

Butterflies in the Mist, Halelau, Koke'e, Kau'ai

Butterflies in the Mist, Halelau, Koke'e, Kau'ai. Photo by Thea Linnaea Pyle.

Butterflies in the Mist, Halelau, Koke'e, Kau'aiButterflies in the Mist, Halelau, Koke’e, Kau’ai. Photo by Thea Linnaea Pyle.
Bob writing up notes at night with help from Laura's assistant

Bob writing up notes at night with help from Laura's assistant. Photo by Thea Linnaea Pyle.

Tiki Torch butterfly net, net furled; perhaps the only tiki torch ever to make it through airport security.

Tiki Torch butterfly net, net furled; perhaps the only tiki torch ever to make it through airport security. Photo by Thea Linnaea Pyle.

Welcome Back Snowman.

Welcome Back Snowman. Photo by Thea Linnaea Pyle.

Christmas with Grandson Francis.

Christmas with Grandson Francis. Photo by Thea Linnaea Pyle.

TLP & RMP, back from Hawai'i: this thing's almost over!

TLP & RMP, back from Hawaii. Photo by Dorothea Hellyer.


This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 11:10 am and is filed under Bob Pyle's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

 

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The Xerces Society » News

The Old Man and the Bee

Dr. Robbin Thorp started looking for Franklin’s bumble bee in the 1960s. It remained easily found throughout its range since the 1990s, but subsequent yearly surveys by Dr. Thorp have suggested this bee is nearly extinct. No Franklin’s bumble bees were observed during surveys in 2004 – 2004 with the exception of a single worker bee found in 2006. And yet, 10 years after last sighting the bee Dr. Thorp continues his search and remains hopeful.

Mount Ashland, Oregon (CNN) He was an old man who spent his days alone in the mountains of southern Oregon looking for a bee. He hadn’t seen the bee — no one had seen this particular bee species — in 10 years when he asked me to join him.

It was August, the last breath of summer bee season. Robbin Thorp, then 82, a retired entomologist from University of California-Davis, wore a safari hat, tinted bifocals and a T-shirt with an image of Franklin’s bumblebee printed on the chest. That black-and-yellow bee, which looks like so many others except for the characteristic “U” on its back, is the object of Thorp’s obsession. It’s a creature he told me flies through his dreams, always just out of reach.
Finding it — believing it can be found — is what brings him to this spot 6,400 feet above sea level, near the base of a ski lift, even though his gait is wobbly now and these craggy, alpine ravines could break a 20-something hip.
Franklin’s bumblebee is a species other scientists fear extinct. But Thorp will barely entertain that idea.
“When things are rare, they’re really, really hard to find,” he told me.
Thorp can be matter of fact like that.
And so the old man keeps looking, bee net in one hand and “bee vacuum” in the other. He walks from one flower to the next, inspecting the pollinators. If he sees one that might be Franklin’s he’ll slurp it into the bee vacuum, which looks like a child’s water gun. Then he closely inspects it: “Just another one of the common bumblebees.”
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Note: The Xerces Society is not responsible for the content of external sites.  Where trade names appear, no discrimination is intended, and no endorsement by the Xerces Society is implied.


This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 13th, 2016 at 3:25 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

General Mills joins effort to support bee and butterfly habitats

General Mills has made its largest contribution to help save pollinators, announcing a $2 million commitment that will add more than 100,000 acres of bee and butterfly habitat on or near existing crop lands.

The five-year agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Xerces Society, the world’s oldest and largest pollinator conservation group, will focus its efforts in Minnesota, North Dakota, California, Nebraska, Iowa and Maine. The USDA and Xerces will match this donation with another $2 million toward the project.

Gaining support from large corporations is a key step, conservationists say, in reversing the decline of pollinators that are needed to reproduce food crops and plants.

The investment will support six new field biologists in these regions who will work with General Mills’ suppliers to implement a pollinator habitat plan. With private landowners managing more than 70 percent of all land on the United States mainland, the USDA and nonprofit organizations must rely on corporate and other private partners if they are to stop the decline of pollinators, said Jason Weller, conservation service chief of the federal department.

“Partnerships are vital. If we really want to conserve wildlife and help the environment, we have to work with private landowners,” said Scott Black, executive director of the Xerces Society.

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Note: The Xerces Society is not responsible for the content of external sites.  Where trade names appear, no discrimination is intended, and no endorsement by the Xerces Society is implied.


This entry was posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 12:04 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

General Mills, NRCS and the Xerces Society announce multi-year, $4 million investment in pollinator habitat

WASHINGTON — General Mills, the Xerces Society, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announce a major milestone in their partnership to restore and protect pollinator habitat across hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in North America. The five-year, $4 million financial commitment between General Mills and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will support farmers across the U.S. by providing technical assistance to plant and protect pollinator habitat, such as native wildflower field edges and flowering hedgerows.

General Mills, the Xerces Society, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announce a major milestone in their partnership to restore and protect pollinator habitat across hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in North America. The five-year, $4 million financial commitment between General Mills and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will support farmers across the U.S. by providing technical assistance to plant and protect pollinator habitat, such as native wildflower field edges and flowering hedgerows. Through 2021, this partnership will help to plant over 100,000 acres of pollinator habitat.

Through 2021, this partnership will help to plant over 100,000 acres of pollinator habitat. Providing habitat in agriculture landscapes has been shown to help a variety of pollinators, including bumble bees, squash bees, honey bees and butterflies, and provides benefits to crops that need insect pollinators. Such habitat can also improve water quality, reduce soil erosion and provide habitat for game and songbirds.

“Two-thirds of the continental United States is privately owned, making the land management decisions of America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners essential to pollinator health,” NRCS Chief Jason Weller said. “Agricultural producers can make relatively simple tweaks on working lands that benefit bees, butterflies and other pollinators while improving the operation as a whole. NRCS offers more than three dozen conservation practices that can benefit pollinators, and this partnership will enable us to better plan and implement these practices.”

In North America alone, bees are responsible for over $25 billion in agricultural production each year. In addition to improving the yield of many crop species, research demonstrates that pollinators such as bees may also improve the nutritional value and commercial quality of some crops.

“Pollinators supply one-third of the food and beverages that Americans consume,” said Jerry Lynch, Chief Sustainability Officer at General Mills. “As part of General Mills’ global commitment to treat the world with care, our investment will help pollinators to continue to play a key role in sustainable food production in the U.S.”

To create and accelerate habitat restoration for pollinators, this partnership will support six Xerces/NRCS Pollinator Conservation Biologists jointly managed by the NRCS and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, the largest and oldest pollinator conservation organization in the world. This biologist team will support U.S. farmers by providing individual consulting on habitat restoration and pollinator-friendly farm management practices, evaluate habitat, and serve as advisors to other conservation agency staff in the regions they serve. The biologists will be based in California, Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Maine.

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Note: The Xerces Society is not responsible for the content of external sites.  Where trade names appear, no discrimination is intended, and no endorsement by the Xerces Society is implied.


This entry was posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2016 at 12:00 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.