Pharohylaeus Lactiferus reemerges

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Recently, one researcher in Australia made a surprising discovery.

A bee that has not been seen for about a century was seen again by researcher, James Dorey. The last time that the mass bee was seen was in 1923. The mask bee is known as Pharohylaeus lactiferus.

Mr. Dorey, who is a doctoral candidate at Flinders University, discovered the bee while working on fieldwork in Queensland, Australia, Dory spoke to the website Live Science. He told them, "I never really expected to find any, but we have caught many times more bees now than we did back then." after the discovery, Mr. Dory was on the search for more of the masked critters. He searched in flowers and swept nets over the flowers to trigger any bugs, to fly out.

His research concluded that there are three known geographically isolated populations of the bees. The masked bees live in subtropical rainforests and are dependent on illawarra flame trees and firewheel trees.

With James' research comes the fact that the bees are disappearing fast. This time they might be extinct for good. Dorey thinks that deforestation and wildfires have created a lack of masked bees and climate change is worsening. He says, "These potential threats are likely to get worse," Because of the large gap in population data, it is impossible to know how the numbers of the masked bees have fluctuated. "Without it. We have no idea what's going on in the ecosystem." Dorey says. "If we did not go and look, then species declines would certainly go unnoticed. And the protection of species would be impossible."