NATIVE BEES: AN IGNORED RECOURSE. While the domestic bee is being decimated by a number of environmental and biological causes, it may be that the future of the world’s food security lies with the humble native species that almost nobody is aware of. Read more …. Xylocopa mordax (Caustic Carpenter Bee) (*); Photo courtesy of USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Program THE SECRET LIFE OF NATIVE BEES (from an article by Enrique Gili, Dec. 19, 2013   in Ensia,   Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, USA) As colony collapse disorder takes its toll on honeybees, native bees draw attention as an insurance policy for future food security. Bees, wasps and other species they interact with, the group has evidence suggesting native species are surprisingly robust, despite the downward trend in pollinator populations on the whole. This is a bright spot amid the dire news heard recently about domesticated honeybees — the demise of...