The Macropis Cuckoo Bee specimen, Epeoloides pilosulus, was collected near Grasslands National Park, close to Wood Mountain. (submitted photo/government of Saskatchewan)

By Alice McFarlane

MACROPIS CUCKOO BEE

Rare bee species discovered in Saskatchewan

Oct 4, 2023 | 10:28 AM

REGINA, SK – Researchers at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) have uncovered a specimen of a rare bee that was last found in the province more than 65 years ago.

The Macropis Cuckoo Bee specimen, Epeoloides pilosulus, was collected near Grasslands National Park, close to Wood Mountain. The rare bee is a nest parasite, or cuckoo, of oil-collecting bees of the Macropis group that is entirely dependent on the oil from a wildflower known as Fringed Loosestrife.

Records of this bee species in Canada come from pre-1960s from Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. In the last 13 years, Alberta, Manitoba and New Brunswick have also recorded the species.

In Saskatchewan, it has previously only been collected from two locations: Wood Mountain, in 1955, and Wallwort, in 1942.

RSM Curator of Invertebrate Zoology Dr. Cory Sheffield said this cuckoo is one of only two species in the Epeoloides genus in the world, and the only one occurring in the Western Hemisphere.

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“This specimen supports that populations may still exist in the province, though it is still one of the most uncommon bees in Canada,” Sheffield said.

RSM researchers have been looking for the species for the last few years. While they have found populations of the host bee and flowers, they had not caught the cuckoo bee.

While processing and identifying insect samples from some older collections at the RSM, researchers came across a single specimen that was collected in 2013 as part of the RSM’s BioBlitz.

Sheffield said for insects collected by museum researchers, it sometimes takes a long time to process and identify all that’s been captured.

“I noticed an interesting bee that the summer students had just prepared for the collection. It was pretty exciting,” he said.

Saskatchewan is home to close to 300 different bee species, many of these are important pollinators of crops and wild plants in the province. The RSM currently has between 250,000 to 300,000 bee specimens in their collection that come from across North America.

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

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