Do you like pumpkin pie? Thank the pollinators who make squash (fruit of members of the genus Cucurbita) possible. But don’t thank a honeybee, look to the squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa, a solitary bee that, centuries ago, followed the original spread of squash cultivation by Indigenous farmers. Billy talks with Penn State evolutionary ecologist and bee expert Margarita Lopez-Uribe, whose research has tracked the squash bee’s spread by studying their genes.
Centre Co., PA squash bee from USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab’s photo stream: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/33927073641
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