World Bee Day on May 20 celebrates the relationship between humans and bees, including beekeeping and efforts to address biodiversity loss. Diverse flower areas can attract many wild bee species that feed on sugar-rich nectar. Identifying species visually can be difficult, so courses, guidebooks, apps, and other tools support identification. A new method uses radar to analyze reflections from bees and separate species by wing-beat signature with high precision. Field trails indicate accurate identification, including very closely related insects. Citizen scientists also contribute by recording which insects visit which flowers and submitting sightings to the National Biodiversity Data Centre. In 2025, 1,728 bee records were submitted, and dandelions were the most popular food plant for wild bees.
"The latest innovation in bee identification is to separate species by the number of times they beat their wings. However, wing beats are often so rapid that the human eye and brain get overwhelmed. Details published in the international journal PNAS Nexus reveal that scientists from Trinity College Dublin and the Technical University of Denmark have developed the new identification technique using radar. A sensor transmits radio waves and analyses their reflections from a bee with such high precision that one species can be distinguished from another by their wing beat signature."
"Trails in the field suggest that the new technology can accurately identify different species, even telling apart very closely related insects, something that humans find exceedingly difficult to do visually. Meanwhile, the eyes of citizen scientists have been busy scanning what insects visit what flowers and submitting records of their sightings to the National Biodiversity Data Centre from all over the island of Ireland. In 2025, 1728 bee records were submitted, including information about what the bee was feeding on."
"Analysis of the data showed that Dandelions were once again the most popular food plant for wild bees. In order of importance, the top ten favourite food plants of bees were: Dandelion, Knapweed, thistles, Bram"
Read at Irish Independent
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