Researching bees with Prof Jane Stout, Vice President of Biodiversity and Climate Action

How did you get interested in insects? 

I really got interested in insects in college, when I started working on beneficial beetles on farms.  Afterward, I kept some ground beetles (Anchomenus dorsalis) in the lab and did round-the-clock observations of their foraging behaviour to see what time of day they were active. Then I did a conservation expedition to Tanzania where I was fascinated by seeing the mouthparts of a true bug (Hempitera) for the first time.

After that, I worked on butterfly behaviour in the gorgeous chalk grasslands of southern England, before doing a PhD on bumblebee behavioural ecology. I have been working on bees and other insects ever since!

What does your research focus on?

My research focuses on the ecology, conservation and restoration of insects, particularly the beneficial ones – i.e. the ones that do useful things for farmers and ecosystems.

Mostly I work on pollinating insects, investigating what causes their decline, what the consequences of that decline are in terms of the delivery of pollination services, and how a range of people and organisations can restore them across landscapes. This has led me to co-found the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and the Irish Pollinator Research Network. I also teach about insects at undergrad level, and am the President of the Royal Entomological Society (entomology = the study of insects).

What’s the most exciting thing you have discovered?

That bees have smelly feet and can tell when another individual has visited and emptied a flower of nectar!

Why are bees so important?

Pollinators and other beneficial insects play important roles in ecosystems, regulating plant and animal populations. They are also crucial for the production of food, luxury products like chocolate, coffee and shea butter, and other resources like cotton and some timber. 

Ninety percent of all plant species are animal pollinated, and so is 75% of the worlds leading crop species.  This means pollinators are really important parts of our ecosystems. Unfortunately, many of them are in decline, and so my work helps us to find actions and tools to reverse that decline through practical on the ground conservation and restoration solutions, understanding the motivations and barriers to taking action, and how to fund restoration.

Where is the strangest place you have done research on insects?

I have done research from the mountains of Tanzania, to the coasts of Tasmania, the gardens of Aras An Uachtarain, the savannas of West Africa, and the grasslands of Belmullet - researching insects has taken me around the world.  I have talked about insects in the Houses of Parliament in London, and in the European Parliament in Brussels, and taught students and the general public about them in the river valleys of the Canary Islands and in County Wicklow. Are any of those places strange??

What is your favourite insect?

Gotta be the bees, probably Bombus pascuorum.

What’s your favourite insect fun fact?

Male bees have a grandfather but no father (males come from unfertilized eggs!)

Anything else you want to share?

Insects are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They’ve been around for 480 million years and first conquered the skies more than 300 million years ago, evolving the ability to fly long before the vertebrates (pterosaurs, birds and bats). There are about a million species of insect that have been formally named, but probably several million more that we haven’t discovered yet. They live in almost every habitat on land and in freshwater. They have evolved an extraordinary diversity of lifestyles, diets, and  sex lives. They are the little things that run the world, and are very under-appreciated. That’s why we “Stand tall for the small” during Insect week – to celebrate them and what they do!