> "[Without human intervention] the world could experience a bee extinction that would lead to global hunger and economic collapse, Wilson-Rich said."
While "the press" often gets more wrong than right in any technical or scientific story, they don't screw up direct quotes very often.
Those who continue to use the words "extinction" and "bees" in the same sentence, without reference to a specific species, implying that honey bees are the threatened species, are mere performance artists and profiteers. No matter what credentials, no matter how much experience, saying such things does a disservice to those trying to save the species that are actually threatened or endangered.
What is actually endangered is a set of highly specialized bees that most people have never heard of before, and have no impact on "global hunger" or the economy. But they are some of God's creatures, and it is consistently man who has carelessly and thoughtlessly screwed up their habitat.
The full IUCN list can be found here, most of the endangered/threatened species are bumbles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_endangered_insects
The USA Endangered Species list is shorter.
There are seven types of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees that were listed as Endangered in 2016: Hylaeus anthracinus, Hylaeus longiceps, Hylaeus assimulans, Hylaeus facilis, Hylaeus hilaris, Hylaeus kuakea, and Hylaeus mana. They never lived anywhere but Hawaii.
The only formally "Endangered" bee species found in the continental USA is the rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis). It's habitat loss has been found to be mostly due to agricultural intensification and urbanization, heavy use of pesticides, and disease. It is now found in only about 20% of its former "range".
There are more that should be listed as "endangered" such as the Mojave Poppy Bee, and the Gulf Coast Solitary Bee, but the petitions are still pending.
The Mojave Poppy Bee is only found at seven sites near Lake Mead in Nevada. This bee specializes in foraging on poppies, and its favorite poppies are the (very rare) Las Vegas Bear-Poppy and the federally Endangered Dwarf Bear-Poppy. So, as the native forage goes, so goes the specialized native pollinator of those plants. The main threats are gypsum mining, urbanization, off-road vehicles, grazing, but they also want to blame feral honey bees, even though honey bees tend to pollinate what they forage upon, creating a rising tide that lifts all boats.
The Gulf Coast Solitary Bee Gulf Coast is found in only six locations — all dunes on the Gulf Coast , so the threats are urbanization and anthropogenic global warming–driven increases in sea-level rise and storm surges. To make matters worse, it is another "specialist" - it gathers pollen from just one plant - the "Coastal Plain Honeycomb Head". No, I've never seen one either.
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