{
  "id": 13568943,
  "title": "Race to stop rice-sized bee from a silent extinction",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/10/race-to-stop-rice-sized-bee-from-a-silent-extinction",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-10T23:02:45.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "ABC News AU",
    "slug": "abc-news-au",
    "url": "https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-11/tiny-fijian-bee-discovered-on-brink-of-extinction/107243478"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Scientists are sounding the alarm on a bee species so tiny it could easily be mistaken for a grain of rice. The Hylaeus navai, discovered only in 2024, has already seen its population plummet by 99 percent over the past 150 years and is at risk of what experts call a \"silent extinction.\"\n\nFiji is the only known habitat for this bee, making its plight all the more dire. University of Wollongong researchers Tegan Edwards and James Dorey traveled to the South Pacific nation to search for the elusive insect, battling challenging environmental conditions.\n\nEdwards said most insects remain poorly understood, but the Pacific Islands in particular are under-researched. This prompted the expedition. Dorey found the bee once in 2016, and again multiple times in 2019. The team's findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Ecology and Evolution, indicate the bee is critically endangered.\n\nGenetic analysis suggests the bee's population collapse coincided with Fiji's colonization, leading to habitat destruction and potential pesticide use. Poisonous red flowering plants may also pose a threat.\n\nPollinators are crucial to ecosystems and human survival, yet much about these tiny creatures remains unknown. Edwards urges more research and conservation efforts before it's too late. She emphasizes that without understanding what exists, we cannot protect it. The researchers hope their work will inspire Fijian students to continue studying this rare bee, fostering a new generation of conservationists.",
  "summary": "It is a rare bee barely the size of a grain of rice, but the Hylaeus navai is an example of a species that could have been lost to history before it was found.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}