A World Abuzz with Bees

Scientists turn up 2,000 new bee species

• Hannah Schardt
• Oct 01, 2008

IN THE FIRST comprehensive, global census of bees in more than a century, scientists at New York's American Museum of Natural History have compiled information on more than 19,200 species. That's 2,000 more than were believed to exist only eight years ago. "Most people know of honeybees and a few bumble bees," says John Ascher, a zoologist at the museum who helped organize and classify the species list. "We have documented that there are actually more species of bees than of birds and mammals put together.