As an entomologist, I've spent a lot of time thinking about bees. We’re all aware of their plight, but we often focus on the well-known species like bumblebees and honeybees. They’re large, easy to study, and relatively charismatic. Yet thousands of tiny, solitary bee species remain overlooked, largely because they’re tricky to identify, and funding tends to go to the more economically important honeybee species, which play a vital role in global food production.
This lack of knowledge is a real problem. We know habitat loss, pesticides, and disease are devastating bumblebee populations. But without identifying and tracking other bee species, we can’t grasp the full extent of the problem.
I faced this firsthand a few years back while working on a bee project. We had hundreds of unidentifiable specimens that required expert analysis, and the process took months, creating a serious bottleneck. And with fewer and fewer experts around, it's only going to get worse.