A New Carpenter Bee with Dibyajyoti Ghosh

How do you continue your research when the harsh climate makes collecting impossible most of the year, or when much of your focal area is contained within a Buddhist community which prevents the harm of any animal? What if it’s also a remote area that is difficult and costly to access?

Oh, and don’t forget the trap-destroying monkeys and wild hogs! But once you are able to navigate all of these obstacles, the nature you find is well worth the trouble. In this episode, Dibyajyoti Ghosh shares his experience collecting carpenter bees in a unique and understudied corner of India’s Himalayan mountains. In addition to tales from the field he shares his affection for native bees and speaks with conviction about why their habitats should be better surveyed and protected.

Dibyajyoti Ghosh’s paper “Description of a new species of genus Ceratina Latreille, 1802 (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) from Eastern Himalayas, India with a new country record” is published in volume 9 issue 1 of the Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics. It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.52547/jibs.9.1.139

New Species: Ceratina tawangensis
Episode image courtesy of Dibyajyoti Ghosh. Find Dibyajyoti’s work on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Dibyajyoti-Ghosh-2242506077