Anita Collins, who studied native bees for 40-plus years, was one of the speakers at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center's second day of the Migration Fest on Sept.30.

She said hairy eyeballs are the distinguishing factor in honeybees.Collins said other bees are the bumble, carpenter, leaf cutter, sweat, wool gatherer, cuckoo, polyester and more. Some have not been named. They come in many sizes, different patterns and colors. Many of the tiny ones are not even recognized by most people as bees.There are 4,000 species with 400 of them in Pennsylvania. They all collect nectar and pollen, build nests and raise young. Some have extremely long tongues to reach into deep flowers. All are specific to the kinds of flowers they are attracted to.Bees are essential to pollinate almonds, apples, clover, alfalfa, pears, cranberries, blueberries, plums and squash.Nest parasites have little hair and don't collect pollen.Nature Center Director Dan Kunkle said one parasite was found on the center's grounds 100 years ago, but has never been seen since at this site.Bees have two pairs of wings and flies have only one pair, said Collins. Their antennas are segmented.Collins is doing a native bee survey. Yellow, blue or white bowls are set out filled with soapy water which traps the bees. In one day Naturalist Club member Clare Kubik found 175 different bees. One of the identifying marks is by the hair on the abdomen.The blueberry bee collects pollen by shaking the flower to release it. The audience moved to another room where members viewed some of the bees with dissecting microscopes.The final speaker of the event was Dr. Rex Lord. After earning his PhD from John Hopkins he was hired by the Pan American Health Organization. In South America many vampire bats carry rabies.But first he said he wanted to start with another subject. He was one of the first to attach radios on all kinds of animals to track them. Later he found he was the "first." With the advent of transistors in the 1950s, the equipment could be made smaller and so was more useful.Bill Cochran called and asked if Lord could make a small enough unit to put on his rabbits."It was a really simple schematic (design)," and then Cochran asked what would happen if they connected two, and they got tremendous range. "We found how ducks flew 15 miles northwest and then would turn east and south. We found how birds could synchronize their wing flaps and breathing."Vampire bats are common from Mexico to Southern Argentina. They feed on cattle and horses but get rabies and kill thousands of cattle each year, and occasionally people.Vampires live in caves or hollow trees. They are found only in the Americas. Two or three types of vampires feed on birds but birds do not get rabies.The fungus is a European import so the bats can be immunized. There is a possibility that mosquitos could be used to transmit the serum to the bats.It is easy to see where the rabid bats have been because there are animals dying. When researchers follow the trail of dead cattle and pass the last dead cow, one will be smeared with a mixture of Vaseline and warfarin. The poison is spread to the rest of a colony. In Venezuela 1,500 head of cattle were being lost yearly. This has been brought down to four.They are found as far north as Central Mexico.The capybara, a 60-pound rodent found in South America is a relative of the guinea pig. They have tasty meat and the hides are used for gloves, ski boots and jackets.The meat is twice as expensive as beef and the leather is in high demand.Their diet is herbivorous, said Lord. They can be found along the rivers because they need water. Capybaras scent-mark their territory.A male will have a harem of about 10 females. The females do not lay down to nurse their babies.Birds will eat leeches off the capybaras.