Undergradute Oregon State University Corvallis, Oregon
The spread of flying insects has been studied widely among the pest species, but largely neglected among key taxa of beneficial insects, notably bees. Understanding how native bee populations expand their range, however, may have important implications for understanding their rate of movement due to rapid climatic changes or following introduction to new areas outside their historic range. A recently detected range expansion of the squash bee Peponapis pruinosa into southern Oregon in 2016 provided an excellent opportunity to characterize the expansion patterns of native bees. I recruited community scientists from across Oregon in 2021 to determine the distribution of P. pruinosa five years after its initial detection. My findings provide an initial estimation of the patterns of dispersal of this bee through the state and how the species is expected to expand throughout the region.
