preložiť It is spreading rapidly throughout Europe. Scientists discover a new invasive bee species in western Slovakia
Scientists have discovered a new invasive bee species in western Slovakia. The bee is an Asian bee. It first arrived in Europe in 2008 in France and has been spreading quite rapidly since then.
In recent years, it has been known from Budapest and Vienna, and its arrival in Slovakia was expected. This was stated by Marek Semelbauer from the Institute of Zoology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV).
The upholstery shrew has a two to 2.5 centimetre, black body. Its chest is brownish hairy and its wings are smoky.
They tend not to attack large vertebrates
They should be no more dangerous to humans than native bee species, according to Semelbauer. He says these solitary bee species don't tend to attack large vertebrates.
"It may pose some threat to some native species, but by far the most significant threat to our bees is a combination of human activities, especially intensive agriculture, clear-cutting, the disappearance of species-rich meadows," the expert noted.
Semelbauer discovered the new bee together with Adrian Purkart from the Department of Zoology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Comenius University in Bratislava.
See the August 1 report on the plague that is plaguing beekeepers: