New Bee Species Discovered in Canada Sweat bee Researchers Jason Gibbs who was working on a study of sweat bees discovered a new species while commuting from downtown Toronto to York University. It is one of 19 new species he found while examining 84 species of sweat bees in Canada � so named because they are attracted to perspiration � which are common in North America. His study goes a long way in cataloging a variety of bee that has proven a œnightmare to study.   Science Daily reports that despite their numbers and status as an important pollinator, sweat bees are tough to study because it is hard to pin a specimen to a certain species. œThey are a nightmare to identify to species because their physical characteristics � their morphologies � are so similar among species. No one has been able to identify these bees until now even though they make up so many of the bees we collect, says Gibbs. œIts important to identify these species, because if we dont know what bees we have, we cant know what bees were losing. Taking the challenge head on, Gibbs was able to identify 19 new species of sweat bee, including a cuckoo bee, which will invade another sweat bees next and lay its eggs on the pollen and nectar collected by the competitor. Via Treehugger Share ThisSubscribedel.icio.usFacebookRedditStumbleUponTechnorati