For bee abundance, look to Beehive State

If you’re looking for bees, look no further than the Beehive State. Utah has more bee species than most states in the nation, researchers found. One out of every four bee species in the United States exists in Utah, they found, and about half of them exist within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. A four-year study funded by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Agriculture Department found 660 species in the monument. Researchers discovered 49 previously unknown species and 150 “morphospecies,” which don’t quite match known species.

Read the study in PeerJ.

Header Image: A bee seeks pollen from a wildflower in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. ©Joseph S. Wilson, Utah State University