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IMAGE: This photo shows a giant Patagonian bumblebee (Bombus dahlbomii). Four decades ago, these bees were abundant in Chile and Argentina, but now they have become an uncommon sight.
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Credit: Eduardo E. Zattara
Researchers at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) in Argentina have found that, since the 1990s, up to 25% of reported bee species are no longer being reported in global records, despite a large increase in the number of records available. While this does not mean that these species are all extinct, it might indicate that these species have become rare enough that no one is observing them in nature. The findings appear January 22 in the journal