New York Natural Heritage Program Facilitating Conservation of New York’s Biodiversity

2020 Summary for the Empire State Native Pollinator Survey January-December 2020

Thanks so much for your continued efforts in 2020 for the Empire State Native Pollinator Survey! We wanted to share with you some project happenings from 2020. It was a challenging year for survey work with the pandemic, but we had another successful year! Special thanks to those of you who submitted specimens or photos to the project thus far. As 2020 was to be our final official year of the project, we will not be collecting specimens this year; however, we will continue to accept photos on our iNaturalist project site through September 2021. We also have a call out to all partners for any additional records they have in NY for focal taxa from other studies, also needed by end of September.

Citizen Scientist Implementation and Participation

We currently have 193 registered project participants. We set up general participant workshops to occur in three regions of the state this year and registration opened in March on our sign-up page (http://signup.com/go/yxaxrgQ). These workshops were cancelled due to COVID-19:

Capital District: Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, Delmar, NY on Saturday, Hawthorn Mining Bee (Andrena crataegi), June 6th Laura Shappell Western NY: Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, Jamestown, NY on Saturday, June 20th Central NY: Montezuma Audubon Center, Savannah, NY, on Saturday, May 30th

In addition, Dr. Bryan Danforth was going to host a bee identification course at Cornell University from May 18-20, limited to 25 project participants. We communicated with our registered participants in early April to inform them that the project would continue this year during the COVID-19 situation and offered suggested practices for social distancing and safety for this season following health guidelines. We conducted a four-hour Zoom training on the ESNPS and survey techniques to the Central Pine Barrens Commission and other interested parties on April 16. It was attended by about 45 people. A recording of this training (and field and lab trainings by Sam Droege, Project Advisor) were made available to those who were registered for the general workshops above. As before, the workshop included a power point presentation with information on survey goals, methods, and how to participate along with basic pollinator biology and characteristics of our

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focal taxa. We included training demos for how to submit photos to iNaturalist using a hand-held device or laptop and videos on field survey techniques and specimen processing and pinning. We also presented this information to NYNHP staff during webinars in March and April in hopes of increasing participation in 2020 field season among staff on a volunteer basis. In addition, we gave a project overview to participants in a lecture series sponsored by the St. Lawrence/Eastern Lake Ontario PRISM and Indian River Lakes Conservancy on May 20 via webinar. This was part of their “Pollinator Pathway” project. On June 25, we conducted an in-person training at the ADK Loj for the Adirondack Mountain Club Summit Stewards who assisted us with doing targeted alpine habitat pollinator surveys again this summer. We also trained NYC Department of Environmental Protection staff in our pollinator sampling methods on July 24. They conducted five surveys for wetland pollinators as part of our collaboration on an EPA Wetland Program Development Grant. We coordinated with Cornell University researchers trying to identify the best soil and seed mixes for roadside plantings around NY, working with the NYS DOT. We helped set up an iNaturalist project for them to assist with their data collection, the results of which can be used for the ESNPS as well. We issued a call for data in September for participants to send us data forms and specimens by the end of September and to post any photos to our iNaturalist project (and send us any late-season specimens) by the end of November. We have received data forms and specimens from 8 non-project funded participants/parties. In addition, we received additional photo data from one source. Many participants continued survey work this past summer and posted photos to iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/empire-state-native- pollinator-survey). We currently (March 2021) have over 21,000 observations for over 1400 species and over 600 people submitting photos on our project iNaturalist page. Over 11,000 photos were submitted to the project this year so far compared to about 7,300 last year and 2,400 the first year. Our iNaturalist Collection Project Bare-eyed Bee-Mimic Fly (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/esnps-collection- (Mallota bautias) Dylan Cipkowski project), pulls NY native pollinator records together into one place, regardless of whether or not the observer has officially joined our ESNPS iNaturalist project. The results presented here are pulled from this collection project: As of January 25, 2021, there were 36,545 records in the iNaturalist collection project for NY within our broad focal groups and 24,963 have attained Research Grade, which means they have a date, location, and species-level identification shared by two or more users. Some highlights on the number of species in our broad focal taxa are as follows:

 Coleoptera (beetles): 36 flower longhorn beetles, Lepturinae, 2 hairy flower scarab beetles, Trichiotinus  Diptera (flies): 6 bee flies, Bombylius, 93 hover flies, Syrphidae  Hymenoptera (bees): 17 Andrena, 14 Bombus, 6 Melissodes, 17 Megachile, and 4 Osmia  Lepidoptera (moths): 11 flower moths, Schinia, 43 sphinx moths, Sphingidae

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Some of the species highlights from 2020 of notable focal taxa include the following:

• Andrena crataegi: 9 obs from eastern and central NY and LI • Andrena erigeniae: at least 4 obs from Richmond and Monroe counties • Andrena nubecula: at least 7 obs from Westchester, Rockland, and Hamilton counties • Bombus flavidus: 3 observations in Green and Madison counties • B. auricomus: 6 obs from Onondaga and Monroe counties • B. rufocinctus: 7 obs, eastern NY and St. Lawrence and Niagara counties • B. terricola: 21 obs statewide • Megachile inermis: 6 obs, northern, central and southern NY • Megachile relativa: 1 obs Green county • Sphinx drupiferarum: 1 obs from Suffolk Co. • Schinia lynx: 1 obs from Queens • Bombylius incanus: 8 obs from Richmond, Suffolk and Saratoga counties • Mallota bautias: 1 obs, Tompkins County

Field Season Preparations and Survey Work

We hired two interns to comprise our pollinator field crew to complete most of these surveys, Joe Giulian (Cornell graduate 2020) and Chris Wilson (SUNY A long-horned Beetle (Analeptura lineola), ESF junior). Due to the COVID-19 Alan Wells situation, Heritage staff and field crew began work in mid-May, front-loading any day trips until mid-June when we got approval for overnight field trips. They completed the extensive survey work assigned to them in August, and they assisted with specimen pinning and labeling this fall until mid-November. Heritage staff completed an additional seven extensive surveys, and our partners, Central Pine Barrens Commission, completed the last three extensive surveys on Long Island, bringing the total number to 52 statewide surveys, stratified by ecoregion, for 2020 (one had been previously sampled in another season). Through our partnership with OPRHP, additional extensive surveys were completed at Knox Farm State Park and Evangola State Park. Heritage staff conducted pollinator surveys at wetlands as part of our collaboration on an EPA Wetland Program Development Grant including inland poor fens at Capital District WMA, Sundown Wild Forest, and Pharoah Lake Wilderness, a sedge meadow at Partridge Run WMA, marshes at Trout Brook in Greenwich and Lake George Wild Forest, a swamp at North Choctunanda Creek, a floodplain forest at Peebles State Park, a Black-spruce Tamarack Bog in Remsen, and a shrub wetland in Stephentown. The surveys at Capital District, Pharaoh Lake, Sundown and Remsen, met our targeted peatland survey goal as well. The Department of Environmental Protection also completed five wetland surveys to support the Grant as well. We completed a targeted barrens survey at Saratoga Sandplains WMA and additional peatland surveys at Shingle Shanty Preserve. Summit Stewards completed four alpine habitat surveys at Haystack, Gothics, Mt. Marcy, and Skylight Mountains and Central Pine Barrens Commission completed a coastal dune survey at Hither Hills State Park. www.nynhp.org | 625 Broadway, 5th Floor Albany, NY 12233-4757 | (518) 402-8935

We worked with Dr. Carmen Greenwood of SUNY Cobleskill to select late successional forests for syrphid malaise trapping this year and hired two interns to conduct the work beginning on May 15, Gloria Keal and Baileigh Behan (SUNY Cobleskill). Traps were set in three Adirondack locations (on the Ampersand Mtn trail, West Canada Lakes area, and Raquette- Jordan Boreal area) and Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area and Letchworth State Park in western NY in May. The traps were checked weekly into July, accompanied by targeted netting. Cobleskill fly interns Gloria Keal and Allie Eastman sorted the samples, pinned, and identified hover flies and other taxa of interest. Our NYNHP field forms database was used to find locations of known host plant species for rare specialist bees in the Macropis and Melitta genera to inform targeted species surveys. Targeted species surveys were conducted at Grafton Lakes State Park, Moreau Lake State Park, Battenkill State Forest, Gee Brook State Forest, Mount Pleasant State Forest, Black Creek Marsh WMA, Thacher State Park, Saratoga Sandplains WMA, Highland Lakes State Park, Capital District WMA, Westcott Beach State Park, and Independence River Wild Forest. The Sundown survey was well timed for Macropis in July in appropriate habitat. Most of the 2020 specimens from Heritage staff and field crew work are pending identification in winter and spring of 2021.

Extensive survey locations in 2018 (blue), 2019 (green), and 2020 (purple)

Figure 1. Extensive surveys for ESNPS in 2018 (blue), 2019 (green), and 2020 (purple) by Ecoregion.

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Museum Visits and Data

We visited Yale in January to catalog any target flies from New York State, and we visited the American Museum of Natural History over three days in February and databased NY records for sphinx moths from this collection. Since the COVID crisis, we have been delayed in further museum work at Cornell and AMNH as visitations have not been allowed.

Other Presentations

We presented on native pollinators and our project on January 12th at Emma Treadwell Thatcher Nature Center. We also presented an overview of the pollinator project at the Bureau of Ecosystem Health meeting in Syracuse in February, as part of a session on pollinators and pesticides. In October, we presented the goals and preliminary project results to the Agriculture Commissioner’s Apiary Advisory Committee.

Data from Partners

Following trainings Heritage provided, the Central Pine Barrens Commission, Summit Stewards, and Department of Environmental Protection submitted data forms and specimens from surveys.

Specimen and Data Progress and Identification

Heritage staff have entered their own site survey data (or imported it from an electronic form) from the 2020 field season. We have also entered site survey data for participants who submitted specimens to the project. SUNY Cobleskill students are currently processing and identifying focal fly specimens. Blinded Sphinx (Paonias excaecata), Bees and beetles from the Malaise traps were Sue Feustel delivered to NYNHP, with the bees subsequently being delivered to Cornell. Heritage staff, the pollinator field crew, and volunteer Alison VanKeuren pinned specimens from their surveys, other staff surveys, and those of partners as well as labeled them. As specimens were labeled, we sorted them into separate boxes by taxa, so they could be distributed to various experts for identification. These specimens have been distributed to experts for identification, as done in the past: bees to Cornell (Bombus retained in-house), target flies to SUNY Cobleskill, beetles, moths and bycatch retained in-house. We also worked on getting 2019 specimen determinations and verifications into the pollinator database. This was complete by the end of January 2021. We uploaded 2019 photos of rare bumble bees from a volunteer in Jefferson county to our iNaturalist project and worked on labeling hymenoptera from 2017 that needed bar-coded labels so these may be identified with the last specimens of the project this winter (bumble bees: in-house, other bees: Cornell). All 2019 identifications of focal flies, beetles, leps, and bees for the statewide project are now complete. Also complete are all 2019 focal flies, beetles, leps and bees for the Fort Drum project, whose data will feed into this project. A small portion of specimens will need www.nynhp.org | 625 Broadway, 5th Floor Albany, NY 12233-4757 | (518) 402-8935

verification by other taxonomic experts. We have begun to photograph focal fly specimens for review by syrphid expert John Klymko and need to pursue verification of other groups as well. We were unable to begin accessioning the bumble bees from 2018 into the collection at the NYS Museum due to their closure in March, but we met with staff there to work out a procedure prior to closure. We have received word that this work should be possible in 2021. The Danforth Lab’s work on bee identification was slowed due to campus closure from COVID-19 but we received a database of most 2019 bee determinations by November and received a final dataset in January 2021.

Plans for 2021

We are now transitioning into the final phase of the project. This year, we will still accept photos of native pollinators in our iNaturalist project until September 30, 2021. We will focus energies on 2020 specimen identification, curation of specimens from all years, gathering datasets from partners, analysis of records, and reporting. If we are granted access to museums, we will continue our museum visits to gather past data on focal taxa. We expect to write up our results from the project by spring 2022 in a final report.

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