Recent undergraduate researcher Anthony Hunsaker, BS'24 and USU Biology faculty mentor Joseph Wilson of USU Tooele publish findings about Utah's pollinators in the journal Diversity.
Recent undergraduate researcher Anthony Hunsaker, BS'24 and USU Biology faculty mentor Joseph Wilson of USU Tooele publish findings about Utah's pollinators in the journal Diversity.
Wildlife conservation is critical to sustaining the planet’s biodiversity and health. But putting together a conservation plan is a tall order. First of all, you need to determine what species you’re conserving, along with their numbers, habitat needs, threats and how they fit into a complex ecosystem.
As pollinators for native plants and food crops, bees play a pivotal role in our ecosystem, according to Utah State University ecologist Joseph Wilson. He and undergraduate researcher Anthony Hunsaker took on the herculean task of documenting Utah’s bee species using online occurrence records from the Symbiota Collection of Arthropods Network, along with specimen records housed at the USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Research Unit located at USU’s Logan campus.
They discovered the nickname “Beehive State” aptly describes the western state’s bee diversity, and published “A Checklist of the Bees of Utah,” with colleagues Terry Griswold of the USDA-ARS Pollinating Insects Research Unit and USU alum Olivia Messinger Carril (Biology ’00, MS’06) of the Native Pollinator Project, in the March 14, 2025 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Diversity.
Read more at Utah State University
Image: Near Moab, Utah, bees of the Genus Diadasia, also known as chimney bees, mallow bees or digger bees, build their characteristic cylindrical nests in the middle of a dirt road. Utah State University ecologists compiled a comprehensive list of Utah's bee species and published their findings in the March 14, 2025 issue of the journal Diversity. (Credit: Joseph S. Wilson, USU)
