ITHACA, NY (607NewsNow) — Cornell researchers have discovered one of the largest and oldest recorded aggregations of ground nesting bees in the world at the East Lawn Cemetery.

A finding sparked by entomology lab technician Rachel Fordyce, she collected a jar of bees while walking to work through the cemetery. After bringing them to her boss, Cornell Professor of Entomology Bryan Danforth, the bees were identified as Andrena regularis (also known as the “regular mining bee”), a species that acts as an important pollinator.

An estimated 5.5 million individual bees, the aggregation is the equivalent of more than 200 honeybee hives in a 1.5-acre plot of land (more than three times the population of Manhattan) according to the Cornell Chronicle.

Steve Hoge, Cornell ’24, recently published a study in the journal Apidologie using the newly found bee population at East Lawn Cemetery as a case study. He conducted his research in Danforth’s lab while completing his undergraduate degree.

Read the study here and learn more about the discovery of the aggregation here.