native plants for bees and other pollinators

摘要

We like bees. (This seems a safe claim to make.) But our appreciation for the honey bee often extends to other insect pollinators, as well. In fact, the honey bee has become an ambassador for worldwide pollinator health, since many of the factors thatthreaten honey bees also threaten other insect pollinators. To protect the honey bee is to preserve an unseen host of other valuable insects, most of which are much more difficult to monitor. Yet research suggests that under certain circumstances, honeybees - an introduced species in most parts of the world - may compete for resources with native bees and other pollinators. The status of the honey bee as a symbol for insect conservation makes the idea that they might also endanger this cause a particularly unsettling thought.