WASHINGTON— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that Southern Plains bumblebees may warrant Endangered Species Act protection. The announcement triggers a yearlong scientific assessment followed by a public comment period before a final decision is made on whether to protect the bumblebees.

Today’s finding comes in response to a petition filed in 2022 by the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Southern Plains bumblebees have already disappeared from six states and desperately need Endangered Species Act protection to survive,” said Jess Tyler, a Center entomologist and petition author. “The Act has an incredible track record of keeping species from going extinct and putting them on the path to recovery.”

The bumblebees previously inhabited 26 states across the Great Plains and along the southeastern Gulf coastal plain. Southern Plains bumblebees have declined over multiple decades and are now half as abundant, having disappeared from Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Dakota and Ohio.

Grasslands across the species’ range are plagued by multiple threats that contribute to the bee’s decline. Conversion to crops, heavy grazing and pesticides destroy and degrade the bee’s grassland habitat. Degraded grasslands limit nutrition from diverse pollen and nectar sources.

Pesticides also pose a grave threat by reducing survival rates, harming the bees’ immune systems and hindering reproduction.

Background

Twelve bumblebee species, including the Southern Plains bumblebee, are potentially vulnerable to extinction in the United States, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Only two bumblebee species — the rusty patched bumblebee and Franklin’s bumblebee — are currently protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Southern Plains bumblebees are one of the largest bumblebees in North America and are distinctive for the flattened hairs on their abdomen, which give them a slicked-back look compared to fuzzier bumblebees.

The bumblebees are social insects, living in colonies with a single queen and workers that can number in the hundreds. They are foraging generalists with a broad floral diet that allows them to inhabit a wide variety of areas. They provide essential pollination service to wild plants and to pollinator-dependent crops.