Steve Ahillen

USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park used to be abuzz with rusty patched bumble bees, but park entomologist Becky Nichols said one hasn’t been spotted in quite awhile.

The species received the dubious honor on March 21 of becoming the first bee in the continental United States added to the endangered species list.

“At one time it was very common in this area,” Nichols said. “Its historical range was all the way from the Upper Midwest all down the Atlantic Coast. It was quite common here 20 years ago, but we haven’t seen one since 2001.

“We would routinely collect some of those species in our trap, but over a five-year period we started to wonder why we weren’t collecting them anymore. You go back out to look at Andrews Bald or Gregory Bald where there were a lot of blooming azaleas, and they just weren’t there.”

She blamed the disappearance of the bee - named for the small rust-colored patch on the middle of its second abdominal segment - on the usual suspects: pesticides, disease and habitat loss. “There are not enough floral resources anymore,” she said.

Their loss to the park has been subtle but could lead to worse problems.

“Within a natural eco-system like the Smokies you might not see anything dramatic, but it is with the slow decline of all of these pollinators as a group that we are going to see plants that aren’t going to be able to reproduce.”

The rusty patched bumble bee is a particular favorite of tomato farmers who have employed them through the years in greenhouses.

“They might be seeing an impact,” Nichols said.

With their addition to the endangered list, protecting the rusty patched bumble bee becomes the job of the federal Fish and Wildlife Service.

“There are still some (of the bees) that have been found in Wisconsin,” Nichols said. “They are not extinct. That is why it was felt so strongly that these bees had to be listed – to save them from the brink of extinction. Now there will be a recovery plan.”

She said the park would be game for accepting bees for re-population, much like being done with elk, but the bees would have to be checked first.

“That is a little of the problem. From those greenhouses and the type of agriculture used the bees somehow became infected with a fungus,” she said. “We would have to make sure the bees coming in don’t have that.”

Nichols said park personnel will also step up efforts to find the bee's potential hideouts within the park.

“We hope there is a small, little population that we just haven’t found and maybe it will come back,” she said. “We will be doing a bit more searching.”