A Florida bee so rare that scientists didn't know if still even existed was found this spring by a Florida Museum of Natural History researcher.
The blue calamintha bee, which depends on an endangered plant, was only ever recorded in four places in central Florida's Lake Wales Ridge region. The bee was last observed in 2016, and wanting to conserve the species, Chase Kimmel, a postdoctoral researcher, and his adviser, Jaret Daniels, director of the museum's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, set out to determine the bee's current population status, where it nests, and its feeding habits.
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