Millions of Bees Have Thrived Under a New York Cemetery for More Than a Century
Millions of Bees Have Thrived Under a New York Cemetery for More Than a Century
数百万只蜜蜂在纽约一处墓地地下繁衍生息了一个多世纪
A morning walk through East Lawn Cemetery in Ithaca, New York uncovered an immense colony of some 5.5 million subterranean bees. The discovery, which a Cornell University research team published in April in the journal Apidologie, documents one of the largest aggregations of these insects ever recorded in the world. The population, belonging to the species Andrena regularis, occupies an area of about 1.25 acres and is crucial for pollination of the region’s orchards, demonstrating that historic cemeteries can prove unsuspected refuges for urban biodiversity.
在纽约州伊萨卡市的东草坪公墓（East Lawn Cemetery），一次晨间散步揭开了一个拥有约 550 万只地下蜜蜂的庞大蜂群。康奈尔大学的研究团队于 4 月在《蜜蜂学》（Apidologie）期刊上发表了这一发现，记录了世界上有史以来规模最大的此类昆虫聚集地之一。该蜂群属于地蜂属（Andrena regularis），占据了约 1.25 英亩的土地，对于当地果园的授粉至关重要，这表明历史悠久的墓地可以成为城市生物多样性意想不到的避难所。
The Genesis of the Discovery
发现的起源
It all began in the spring of 2022, when Rachel Fordyce, then a laboratory technician in Cornell University’s entomology department, noticed an anomalous presence of insects during her usual walk to work. After collecting some specimens, she showed them to Bryan Danforth, an entomologist at the same university. Analysis revealed that they were Andrena regularis, commonly called the mining or miner bee. Unlike honey bees, this wild species has a solitary lifestyle and nests by digging tunnels in the ground. Historical records indicate that the insect has been present in the cemetery, established in 1878, since at least the early 1900s.
这一切始于 2022 年春天，当时康奈尔大学昆虫学系的实验室技术员瑞秋·福代斯（Rachel Fordyce）在上班途中，注意到了一些异常出现的昆虫。在收集了一些样本后，她将它们展示给了该校的昆虫学家布莱恩·丹福斯（Bryan Danforth）。分析显示，这些昆虫是 Andrena regularis，通常被称为采矿蜂（mining bee）。与蜜蜂不同，这种野生蜂类过着独居生活，通过在地下挖掘隧道筑巢。历史记录显示，这种昆虫自 1878 年建立该墓地以来，至少从 20 世纪初就一直存在于此。
The Census
普查
To calculate the size of the colony, scientists placed 10 traps placed in the cemetery between late March and mid-May 2023. These small net curtains cover less than one square meter of soil and channel insects coming out of the ground to a glass container. In total, more than 3,000 insects belonging to 16 different species were sampled, including bees, beetles, and flies, with an overwhelming prevalence of Andrena regularis. Extrapolating from the average density found in the traps, the researchers estimated a total population of between 3 and 8 million, with an average value of 5.5 million—the equivalent of more than 200 domestic bee hives.
为了计算蜂群的规模，科学家们在 2023 年 3 月下旬至 5 月中旬期间在墓地放置了 10 个陷阱。这些小型网帘覆盖了不到一平方米的土壤，将从地下钻出的昆虫引导至玻璃容器中。总共采集了 16 个不同物种的 3,000 多只昆虫样本，包括蜜蜂、甲虫和苍蝇，其中 Andrena regularis 占据了绝对多数。根据陷阱中发现的平均密度进行推算，研究人员估计总种群数量在 300 万到 800 万之间，平均值为 550 万——相当于 200 多个家养蜂箱的规模。
The research yielded previously unpublished data on the biology of this little-studied insect. The traps revealed that males emerge from the ground a few days earlier than females during the first warm days of April, a strategy that maximizes mating opportunities. Subsequently, females dig nests and lay eggs in cells filled with pollen and nectar. The species has the distinction of wintering at the adult stage underground, which allows it to become active very early in the spring, in perfect synchrony with the flowering of apple trees in the nearby Cornell University orchards. Monitoring also revealed the presence of complex ecological dynamics, such as parasitism by bees of the Nomada imbricata species, which lay their eggs in the nests of the host species at the expense of the original larvae.
这项研究提供了关于这种鲜为人知的昆虫生物学的未发表数据。陷阱显示，在 4 月的第一波暖日里，雄蜂比雌蜂早几天从地下钻出，这是一种最大化交配机会的策略。随后，雌蜂挖掘巢穴，并在装满花粉和花蜜的巢室中产卵。该物种的独特之处在于以成虫形态在地下越冬，这使它们能够在春季非常早的时候就开始活动，与附近康奈尔大学果园苹果树的开花期完美同步。监测还揭示了复杂的生态动态，例如 Nomada imbricata 蜂类的寄生行为，它们会将卵产在宿主蜂的巢穴中，从而牺牲掉原有的幼虫。
A Heritage to Conserve
需要保护的遗产
The discovery highlights the need to protect the nesting sites of wild bees, 75 percent of which are solitary species living underground. Places such as old city cemeteries offer ideal conditions: sandy soils that are easy to dig, no pesticides, and an environment that is not subject to the profound alterations typical of intensive agriculture or housing development. To prevent populations of this magnitude from being accidentally destroyed by concrete pours or road work, the study’s authors have launched a global citizen science initiative. The project invites citizens to report the presence of underground bee aggregations in order to survey and protect these vital pollinators before habitat fragmentation jeopardizes their survival.
这一发现凸显了保护野生蜜蜂筑巢地点的必要性，其中 75% 的野生蜜蜂是生活在底下的独居物种。像老城区墓地这样的地方提供了理想的条件：易于挖掘的沙质土壤、没有杀虫剂，以及不受集约化农业或住房开发带来的剧烈改变的环境。为了防止如此规模的种群因混凝土浇筑或道路施工而被意外破坏，该研究的作者发起了一项全球公民科学倡议。该项目邀请市民报告地下蜜蜂聚集的情况，以便在栖息地破碎化危及它们的生存之前，对这些重要的授粉者进行调查和保护。
This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian. 本文最初发表于《连线》意大利版（WIRED Italia），由意大利语翻译而来。