...Named (click here) for the conspicuous reddish blotch on its abdomen, the rusty patched bumble bee — or Bombus affinis, as it is known to scientists — has plunged in abundance and distribution by more than 90 percent since the late 1990s, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The agency attributes the decline to a number of factors, including disease, pesticides, climate change and habitat loss.
Bumble bees, as distinguished from domesticated honey bees, are essential pollinators of wildflowers and about a third of U.S. crops, from blueberries to tomatoes, said Sarina Jepsen of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, which petitioned the government for protection of the insect.
Bumble bees’ annual economic value to farms is estimated at $3.5 billion, according to experts....
