Clarence Native Bees Landcare Group begins its activities for 2022

Blue-banded Bee
Image: ABC News, January 2019

The previously postponed Annual General Meeting of the Clarence Native Bees Landcare Group will be held on Thursday, 13 January 2022 commencing 5:30pm at the South Grafton District Ex-Servicemen’s Club at 2 Wharf Street, South Grafton. Office holders will be voted on during this meeting.

Single day native bee workshops will be held with Tobias Smith on both Australian solitary and social bees for both members and the general public on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 March 2022 at 18-26 Victoria Street Grafton (Clarence Valley Aboriginal Healing Centre/Gurehlgam Corporation building).

Each workshop is limited to 45 people and lunch is supplied.

Cost:

Non-members - $45 including lunch

Members – cost of lunch only.

Please contact Carol on 6643.3750 if wishing to attended.

Advice on how to rescue a fallen native stingless beehive:

We have also received reports of fallen trees and branches with native beehives exposed on the ground. If the nest is split open and accessible, advice would be to remove and place the brood/egg structure with the queen bee who is usually hiding in the egg spiral, along with any worker bees, into a box as soon as possible very gently. This can be wooden, plastic, cardboard, polystyrene foam, tin can or even an Esky. Scissors are handy for cutting the egg spiral away from damaged sections of the hive and broken wax structure. Wax without any honey or pollen can be included for repair material for the bees. Don’t include anything with spilt honey on it as this attracts insect predators that attempt to lay their eggs in the damaged hive. If there are unbroken pots of honey or pollen you can include 4 or 5 of each, but if the damaged hive has been exposed for even a short amount of time, predators may have laid their eggs on the pots, so it becomes an unwarranted risk to include them. Don’t be too concerned about the bees starving. If the weather is suitable, the workers will quickly resume foraging and start constructing and filling pots and the queen will resume egg laying. Seal any gaps or cracks in the new box with masking/duct tape, gap filler or even mud/clay in a pinch, to exclude predators. Make or leave a single entrance hole 6-10mm in diameter for the bees to enter/exit and more easily defend. Drilling a hole or poking a hole through the tape with a small stick is an easy option. Reducing the entrance hole size with some of their wax to about 4mm diameter, will make it very easy for even a single bee to defend and the bees can adjust this to their preference. Leave the box near where the hive fell but shaded from direct sunlight, so loose bees can find their way into the new hive box. They will zero in on the scent of the brood/queen. The more workers you can save, the faster the hive recovers and better chance of survival.

Order of priority: queen, workers, brood. If you must, choose two out of the three, queen and workers. If you can’t find the queen, concentrate on saving the brood and workers. There are usually several slightly larger queen eggs in the brood located on the outer edge of the spiral. They also keep very sticky resin in stockpiles around the hive, that is a valuable resource for defense. If you spot any of that, include in the new hive.

After a few weeks or months, once the hive is stabilized and out of immediate danger, they can be transferred to a more substantial box if needed.

For any urgent native bee rescue enquiries or assistance, please call Bronwynn 0427 690 971 (rescue hotline)

Or visit our website www.clarencenativebees.org or email clarencenativebees.info@gmail.com

Bronwynn Lusted [writing in Clarence Valley Independent, 15 December 2021]

Another reason why Australia's remaining native forests should be saved from the loggers - rare bees

 

An Australian native bee believed extinct is found after a 97 year absence from the records.

Pharohylaeus lactiferus 
IMAGE: James Dorey Photography

The Journal of Hymenoptera Research 81:165-180, 25 February 2021:

Missing for almost 100 years: the rare and potentially threatened bee, Pharohylaeus lactiferus (Hymenoptera, Colletidae)

James B. Dorey

Abstract

The Australian endemic bee, Pharohylaeus lactiferus (Colletidae: Hylaeinae) is a rare species that requires conservation assessment. Prior to this study, the last published record of this bee species was from 1923 in Queensland, and nothing was known of its biology. Hence, I aimed to locate extant populations, provide biological information and undertake exploratory analyses relevant to its assessment. Pharohylaeus lactiferus was recently rediscovered as a result of extensive sampling of 225 general and 20 targeted sampling sites across New South Wales and Queensland. Collections indicate possible floral and habitat specialisation with specimens only found near Tropical or Sub-Tropical Rainforest and only visiting Stenocarpus sinuatus (Proteaceae) and Brachychiton acerifolius (Malvaceae), to the exclusion of other available floral resources. Three populations were found by sampling bees visiting these plant species along much of the Australian east coast, suggesting population isolation. GIS analyses used to explore habitat destruction in the Wet Tropics and Central Mackay Coast bioregions indicate susceptibility of Queensland rainforests and P. lactiferus populations to bushfires, particularly in the context of a fragmented landscape. Highly fragmented habitat and potential host specialisation might explain the rarity of P. lactiferus. Targeted sampling and demographic analyses are likely required to thoroughly assess the status of this species and others like it.

Keywords

Conservation, extinction risk, fragmentation, Hylaeinae, invertebrate conservation, Queensland, wildfire, rainforest

Introduction

The greatest threats to ecosystems and species worldwide are habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation (Vie et al. 2009). Australia has already cleared over 40% of its forests and woodlands since European colonisation, leaving much of the remainder fragmented and degraded (Bradshaw 2012). The vast majority of clearing has occurred on freehold and leasehold land and for animal agriculture (Evans 2016). In particular, Queensland is a contemporary land-clearing hotspot and is responsible for more than half of all land-clearing in Australia over the past four decades (Evans 2016). It is a failing of state and federal government policy and regulation that land clearing in Queensland continues at rates that should be of concern both nationally and internationally (Reside et al. 2017).

Despite the ecological importance of Australian native bees, we know very little about their biology (Batley and Hogendoorn 2009) or conservation status. North Queensland hosts high species richness and endemism (Crisp et al. 2001; Orme et al. 2005; Hurlbert and Jetz 2007) and several bee genera that are found nowhere else in Australia (Houston 2018; Smith 2018). These restricted bee genera include: Ctenoplectra Kirby (Apidae: Apinae), Nomada Scopoli (Apidae: Nomadinae), Mellitidia Guérin-Méneville (Halictidae: Nomiinae), Reepenia Friese (Halictidae: Nomiinae), Patellapis Friese (Halictidae: Halictinae) and Pharohylaeus Michener (Colletidae: Hylaeinae).

Pharohylaeus has only two described species: P. papuaensis Hirashima & Roberts in Papua New Guinea and P. lactiferus (Cockerell) in Australia (Houston 1975; Hirashima and Roberts 1986). Both species are relatively large (9–11 mm), robust, mostly black with distinctive white facial and body markings, and have the first three tergal segments enlarged and enclosing the others. The former is known only from two females which were collected on Syzygium aqueum (Burm.f.) Alston (Myrtaceae) in 1982 (Hirashima and Roberts 1986). No published records of P. lactiferus have been made since the third of January 1923, when three males were collected in the Atherton Tablelands; in May of 1900 a male and a female were collected in Mackay while another female was collected in Kuranda prior to 1910 (Cockerell 1910; Houston 1975). However, the collection localities of these specimens are imprecise and no biological data were recorded.

Due to the dearth of biological information on P. lactiferus prior to this study, I aimed to locate extant populations and contribute biological information as part of a broader bee survey. Because of this, much of what follows are exploratory analyses of the potential risks for P. lactiferus and suggestions for future research. Hence, I undertook a series of post-hoc analyses in order to provide insights into the biology, ecology and potential extinction risks associated with P. lactiferus. I provide insights into the circumstances of the rediscovery of P. lactiferus and what is now known of its floral and habitat associations. I also explore spatial data relating to P. lactiferus (vegetation association, potential fire risks and occurrences) and my sampling methods (for potential biases). The possible floral and habitat specialisation along with the rarity of P. lactiferus raises concerns about its conservation status. I further highlight the need for preservation of remnant vegetation and better arthropod-diversity monitoring, particularly for at-risk and phylogenetically important species.

Methodology can be found here.