The Secret Lives of Wild Bees

You’ve probably heard “Save The Bees!” but do you know which bees need saving? Over 4000 species of bees inhabit North America, and most don’t live in hives or make honey. These wild bees come in every size, shape, and color you can imagine, and they live all around us, hiding in plain sight. In this lecture, PhD student and bee expert Nick Dorian will introduce you to the wild bees of the northeast. Together, we’ll examine their varied lifestyles and habitat needs, and the intricate relationships they have with flowering plants and other insects. You’ll come away charmed by these tiny pollinators and with clear action items for how to support them in your backyard. Nick Dorian is an ecologist, an educator, and a naturalist. He is a PhD graduate from Tufts University where he studied the population ecology of solitary bees and ran the Tufts Pollinator Initiative (sites.tufts.edu/pollinators), an urban pollinator conservation and community outreach group. He co-wrote and photographed an online field guide to wild bees www.watchingbees.com.