Great Smoky Mountains National Park has a new bee. It’s a variety of cellophane-cuckoo bee called Epeolus inornatus discovered by researchers studying how the 2016 Chimney Tops II fires affected the park.
This little newbie (new bee) brings the Smokies species tally to 21,081 for Discover Life in America (DLiA) which manages the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI), a groundbreaking effort that began almost 23 years ago to identify and try to understand every species living within the park.
“This is the first time that this bee species has ever been reported in Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” said Will Kuhn, DLiA’s director of science and research. “While it s probably been around the park before now, it was only discovered because we wanted to know how the park’s ecosystem is recovering from the fires.”