New bee species found around Brooklyn NY

Pretty amazing story to find a new species in the most obvious place.  They have to be pretty cold hardy I imagine and because they are the size of a grain of rice they can be effective pollinators in narrow flowers like vanilla.  Too bad vanilla does not grow up here.  But, given that the bees thrive in a dense city I imagine they can do well in a permaculture setting.  It also got me thinking on strategies of increasing bee diversity in a permaculture farm.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/bees/

All the more reason why we need to be careful about what we do before we lose treasures we never knew of.