Home / Environment / Chile's Farming Fix Sparks Bee Extinction Crisis
Chile's Farming Fix Sparks Bee Extinction Crisis
9 Sep
Summary
- Invasive bees introduced for farming now threaten native species.
- Parasitic diseases spread with invasive bees, harming native pollinators.
- Native bumblebees are vanishing from parts of their historical range.
In the early 1980s, approximately 300 queens of Bombus ruderatus were introduced to central Chile from New Zealand to boost red clover seed yields. This agricultural intervention has profoundly altered pollinator communities across southern South America over the past four decades.
The introduced bees, freed from natural predators, expanded their range significantly. Bombus ruderatus reached Patagonia by the early 1990s. A second species, Bombus terrestris, was introduced for greenhouse tomatoes and dispersed across the Andes to Patagonia by 2006, rapidly becoming the dominant species.
This rapid expansion of invasive bees has led to the retreat and endangerment of the native Bombus dahlbomii, the only bumblebee species indigenous to the region. Within less than five years of Bombus terrestris's arrival in Patagonia, the native bee had vanished from some areas it once inhabited.
Research indicates that a parasitic protozoan, Apicystis bombi, arrived with the commercial bees. Following the establishment of Bombus terrestris, infection rates of this parasite surged in both invasive and native bumblebee populations, with Bombus dahlbomii showing a notable susceptibility.
This combination of competition and disease spillover is having a severe cost, pushing Bombus dahlbomii towards regional extinction in certain monitored areas. The situation underscores the critical need for stricter regulations on the introduction of non-indigenous pollinators, especially in areas with vulnerable native bee species.
