Re: [Beemonitoring] Digest for beemonitoring@googlegroups.com - 1 update in 1 topic

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Christelle Guedot

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Sep 24, 2025, 3:48:11 PM (6 days ago) Sep 24
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Hello everyone. I'm teaching a non major lecture in a class on Insect and human culture at UW-Madison on pollinator ecology and I would like to add a slide on a non western scientist that pioneered pollination biology with insects involved (not just a botanist). I can only find western pioneers thus far. For example for the forensic Entomology lecture, we discuss Song Ci (1189-1249) as the founding father. 
If you had any suggestion I would really appreciate it. 
Thanks,

Christelle Guédot 
Associate Professor (She, her, hers)

From: beemon...@googlegroups.com <beemon...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2025 4:33:51 AM
To: Digest recipients <beemon...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Beemonitoring] Digest for beemon...@googlegroups.com - 1 update in 1 topic
 
Kit Prendergast <kitprend...@gmail.com>: Apr 30 10:47AM +1000

Hi Beeple,
Another case of 'what keeps Kit up at night (other than a 4month old baby)'
- I've been hearing a lot from certain organisation that they use the honey
bee as a 'flagship' and that by getting people into honey bees, that will
naturally make them want to learn and protect wild bees as a whole. Fine,
it this works, but I think it's quite an untested assumption . Whilst using
an animal to get people to care about bigger issues e.g. polar bears and
climate change, koalas and logging, is pretty well known, but I can't think
of any example of using a single animal (let alone in many places a managed
one) to care about the greater biodiversity of a taxon (e.g. the koala
isn't a poster animal for marsupials as a whole, they aren't used for
caring/promoting conservation about Marsupial biodiversity as a whole).
For me personally this definitely wasn't the case. Growing up, like
everyone, I knew about honey bees, and they were pollinators, but I was
unaware about other bees, and learning about honey bees didn't make me want
to go and find out more about bees. It was only in my 20s when I went to a
photographic display featuring Megachile bees that I absolutely fell in
love (and the rest is history).
 
It's something I'd really like to get to the bottom of, and was wondering
if you could please answer the below Google Forms poll, as well as share on
your socials/ students/ networks:
 
Did honey bees get you interested in native bee biodiversity?
Honey bees are often used as the representative of all bees, and it is
often claimed, but an assumption untested, that they are the gateway into
caring about bees as a whole.
I however want to test this assumption, as if it is not, we need to rethink
our communication strategies, especially where honey bees are an introduced
species, and amid a biodiversity crisis.
Please let me know - has being shown honey bees or told you about honey
bees made you more interested in learning about bee biodiversity? (were
they a gateway? Did the halo effect apply?) Or did you become interested in
native bees from another bee? (and if so, what was the native bee(s) that
piqued your interest in wild bee biodiversity?)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScN_LAxPcMO95J7QeT4W57fL-Xng31olKHpoQMORLC2Zu_7Ig/viewform?usp=sharing
 
--
Dr Kit Prendergast
Native bee scientist, conservation biologist and zoologist
University of Southern QLD Postdoctoral Researcher (Pollination Ecology)
Adjunct Curtin University and Forrest Scholar Alumni
 
Find native bee resources and more on my Patreon The Bee Babette:
https://www.patreon.com/c/TheBeeBabette
 
ORCiD: *https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099
<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099>*
Research: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kit-Prendergast/research
YouTube channel The Bee Babette: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBeeBabette
'Creating a Haven for Native Bees':
https://www.facebook.com/CreatingaHavenforNativeBeesBook/
Wild Bee artwork:
https://www.redbubble.com/people/BeeBabette/explore?asc=u&page=1&sortOrder=recent
Insta: @bee.babette_performer:
https://www.instagram.com/bee.babette_performer/?hl=en
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Thanks,

Christelle Guédot 
Associate Professor (She, her, hers)

James Cane

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Sep 24, 2025, 4:31:08 PM (6 days ago) Sep 24
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Hi Christelle
Interesting question! Only example that comes to mind are the pioneering studies by Yasuo Maeta and colleagues that led to first commercial management of any Osmia (in apples). But that was only 60-70 years ago.

Jim

James H. Cane
Native bee and pollination ecologist
Emeritus USDA-ARS Bee Lab, Logan, Utah
owner -  WildBeecology

"Knowledge and comprehension are the joy and justification of humanity"
 Alexander von Humboldt


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Christelle Guedot

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Sep 24, 2025, 4:33:30 PM (6 days ago) Sep 24
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Thanks much Jim and Rufus for these suggestions. I really appreciate it. I hope all is well Jim!

Thanks,

Christelle Guédot 
Associate Professor (She, her, hers)

Ai Wen

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Sep 24, 2025, 4:45:58 PM (5 days ago) Sep 24
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Christelle,

I don't know if you consider apiculture as pollination biology, or if you are interested in wild pollinators. There are some apiculture pioneers in China that could be traced back to 2000 or so years ago. For example, you can search "Jiang Qi" and "Ancient China" and "honeybee". But you are more interested in scientists studying wild pollinators, then I really don't know anyone prior to the 1900s. 

Best, --Ai 

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Ai Wen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
193 McCollum Science Hall
University of Northern Iowa
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