Washington Bee Atlas nets over 25 new or rare bee species in its first year

More trained volunteers needed to collect native bees throughout the state

OLYMPIA – After only its first full program year searching for and documenting Washington’s native bees and their host plants, volunteers with the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s (WSDA) Washington Bee Atlas have discovered numerous state records (bees that have never been recorded in the state before) and rare native bees.

The purpose of the Washington Bee Atlas is to find and document Washington’s native bees to better understand what bees are in Washington, which are doing well, and which bees may need conservation support.

In 2024, 67 Washington Bee Atlas volunteers collected over 17,000 specimens on more than 600 different host plants. While many of these bees have yet to be identified, there have already been several remarkable discoveries, including a bee which had not been recorded in the state since 1917 and one that had never been found in Western Washington, in addition to 15 species which had never been collected in the state before.

Eight of the new state records in Chelan County were discovered as part of a graduate research project conducted by University of Washington student and Washington Bee Atlas volunteer Autumn Maust.

The new or rare species the volunteers have found thus far include:
 

Many of these bees were detected in Central Washington, likely because most native bees have adapted to thrive in dry areas like the microclimates found East of the Cascade Mountains. Also, there are very few historic bee collection records in much of this predominantly rural area.

“We’re already learning fascinating things about our native bees, and we’re only getting started,” Karen Wright, WSDA pollinator taxonomist, said. “But we still need more help. Washington is a large state and there are some counties where we don’t have a single volunteer. We’d love to have more people trained and out there looking for and recording our native bees.”

Help find and document Washington’s native bees

The Washington Bee Atlas is a project of the WSDA Pollinator Program. Most bee collecting is done by volunteers trained to collect, pin museum-quality specimens and record the location and host plant where the specimen was collected. The volunteers then submit the pinned specimens to Wright for identification. Eventually, all specimens not used for education and outreach will reside in the Washington State University entomology museum.

Anyone over 18 years old is welcome to become a Washington Bee Atlas volunteer. Volunteers complete extensive training (similar to the Master Gardener training program) to participate. Visit agr.wa.gov/pollinators to learn more about WSDA’s Pollinator Program, the Washington Bee Atlas or to sign up to volunteer.

“These are just our preliminary findings," Wright said. “There are still many more bees to identify from what has been collected, not to mention lots of opportunities to find new or rare species.”

The Washington Bee Atlas also documents the floral resources that native bees utilize and hopes to develop recommendations for ecoregion-specific seed mixes to support pollinators. All of the bee determination data is currently being added to Ecdysis, with plans for more ways to make the data usable by the public currently being discussed.

For those interested in learning more about native bees but not interested in collecting them as a volunteer, the Washington Native Bee Society helps people learn about Washington’s native bees while focusing on photographing, rather than collecting, native bees.

* First collected specimen, although there is at least one prior photographic record on iNaturalist.

Photo captions:

1. Anthophora crotchii in a collection jar.
2. Female Dianthidium singulare
3. Biastes fulviventris
4. Washington Bee Atlas volunteers at collecting event in the Palouse.