George Dashwood Sr., a resident at Simon Fraser Lodge, is now the namesake of the rare Lasioglossum dashwoodi bee species in BC, wrote the Prince George Citizen July 7. Lincoln Best, a graduate student at York University, is one of several researchers who found this bee in the Okanangan in 2008:

"There are hundreds of bee species in B.C., but this one appears to live in only one spot in the world and that's at Ripley Lake west of Oliver," said Best, who named the bee to honour the grandfather of his research partner, Graeme Stevens.

. . .

Best, a student of Professor Laurence Packer of York’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, said the greatest concern of researchers today is the steady loss of bees.

“A lot have been dying due to pesticides and disease. The western bumblebee – the bigger yellow, black and white fuzzy bee found in Prince George gardens – is greatly endangered and disappearing quickly. They are already gone from the western United States,” said Best. “We’re not exactly sure why, but we suspect they are dying off due to disease introduced through other bumblebees used for greenhouse pollination.”

Packer is the author of Keeping the Bees: Why All Bees Are at Risk and What We Can Do to Save Them.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– York University’s daily e-bulletin.