Stingless Bees Discovered by 4-Year-Old Girl Believed to Have Vanished in US Many Decades Ago

Two colonies of stingless bees were recently discovered by Annika Arnout, a four-year-old girl in California, in a place she opted not to reveal, and she called her "secret place."

A Mail Online report said the girl's discoveries vanished in the United States seven decades ago. It also reported, Arnout refused to reveal where she found the bees in a bid to keep the insects safe in that place.

The stingless bees, which existed in Brazil, and are substantially tinier than the honey bees, were taken to the US during the 1950s decade in what was reported as an "unsuccessful bid" to help increase the size of vegetable and fruit crops.

According to senior insect biosystematist Dr. Martin Hauser, from California's Department of Food and Agriculture, who obtained specimens from the recent discovery, the US government got in touch with a Brazilian researcher tens of years ago to help in the pollination of crops across the nation.

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Bees Sent for Further Investigation

The biosystematist explained, the said Brazilian researcher sent the bees in the '50s to Florida, Gainesville, Utah, Palo Alto, and Davis. He added, and the scientist said, "all the bees died in one year."

The bees did not like the cold climate in Utah. They could not compete in Florida, either. Hauser said these insects, despite their names, indeed, have stingers, although they cannot be used for protection, were sent for further analysis as well to Dr. George Shafer, a Stanford professor.

Experts have claimed they are confident that the said bees are descendants of the ones taken to the US in the middle of the 20th century. On the other hand, Hauser admitted he had not heard of these stingless bees, as described in ScienceDirect, until two decades ago.

He got an inquiry from Richard Schmidt, a pest control person in Palo Alto, who sent the bees to the Santa Clara County agricultural department for further investigation.

In a CBS News, Schmidt said he had not seen the discovered bees before. He added that they didn't even know what they were and sent them to the state.

Annika's Bees

For Hauser, the four-year-old's find was impressive. He said he was very impressed that Annika found two colonies, quite an amazing discovery in which she discovered two, while all the scientists "found none."

For this biosystematist, as much as the bees are a rare discovery, the little girl is, as well. He needed to meet her, saying he was quite happy to do so. With this discovery, he now encourages children to be more curious about nature as he was as a child.

The first time they met, Hauser gave Annika the biggest bug book he could find as a gift. However, the bees Annika discovered are not in the book.

Even after over a century of chance sightings, the said bees remain unnamed, although it has been proposed that the stingless bees from Brazil be labeled "Annika's Bees."

There are over 300 stingless bee species in Brazil, including this unidentified species, first described by a German researcher in 1900.

Essentially, around 20 percent of the neotropical stingless bees identified in the field of science, with most of them able to produce honey, a 2019 study published in Brazilian Journal of Pharmacognosy, specified.

Report about the recent discovery is shown on CBS This Morning's YouTube video below: