Cornell to Construct $1.5 Million Bee Database

The decline of the bee population during the past 50 years made a big headline all over the world. Bees which are the most important insects involved in crop production will be showcased in the new database that Cornell University will put together. According to a news article at the university's website, "the database will cover the past and present distribution of bees species, help establish conservation status of species and better predict global risks to bee pollination services from climate change, habitat loss and more."

The project funded by the National Science Foundation to Cornell University entomologist Bryan Danforth, will consolidate data from 10 natural history bee collection across the United States - the American Museum of Natural History, University of California at Riverside, Davis and Berkeley, Rutgers University, University of Connecticut, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service Bee Biology and Systematics Lab at Utah State University, California State Collection of Arthropods and the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. The new collection will add up to the Cornell Insect Collection which was started in 1871, now comprising 150,000-270,000 bee specimens representing about 3,600 species.

The searchable, publicly available online database can be accessed at http://www.discoverlife.org/. The original article is at http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July10/BeeDatabase.html