Study finds tiny cavities in Banksia trees are nests for native bees

January 8, 2019, Curtin University

A new study from Curtin University has found pre-formed cavities in Banksia trees to be an important nesting home for a tiny native Western Australian bee.

The study, published in the international open-access Journal of Melittology, observed the nesting behaviour of Euryglossina perpusilla (E.purpusilla) in Star Swamp Reserve, a 96-hectare A-class reserve in North Beach, located in Perth's northern suburbs.

Author, Ph.D. student Kit Prendergast, from Curtin's School of Molecular and Life Sciences, said little was known about the nesting habits of Euryglossina bees.

"Most native bee sub-families are known to nest in just one type of substrate, being wood nesters, or ground nesters. However, the sub-family Euryglossinae exhibits a range of sociality in nesting habitats and nest construction," Ms Prendergast said.

"They appear to use a range of materials to create their nests in, including the inside of stems, soft wood, pre-existing cavities and soil."

Ms Prendergast installed trap-nests, or bee hotels – wooden blocks with cardboard lined holes 4mm, 7mm and 10mm in diameter – to observe the nesting behaviour of cavity-nesting native bees. Although many native bee species in the Megachilidae family nested in the trap-nests, E. purpusilla never occupied them, instead choosing smaller natural cavities of 1.5 to 3mm in diameter in Banksia branches. However, a small Megachile species was observed to also share the Banksia holes with E. purpusilla.

Ms Prendergast said the study offered important insights that may protect the survival of E. purpusilla, as effective conservation required knowledge of a species' niche and interactions with its environment.

"There is an urgent need to increase our knowledge of Australian native bees given the rapid transformation of natural habitats by urbanisation and reports of bee declines across the globe," Ms Prendergast said.

"With much of the original Banksia woodland destroyed in the southwest Australian biodiversity hotspot, remnant bushland habitats such as Star Swamp Reserve may be fundamental to ensuring endemic species such as these native bees persist."

Euryglossinae is the most species-rich bee sub-family in Australia, with 404 named species comprising minute to small-bodied bees endemic to Australia.

Read more at: 

Wasp Cuts Bee In Half, Because Nature Is Just The Worst (VIDEO)

It's the circle of life. But more realistically, it's just a wasp doing what it does best -- being a monstrous jerk.

In what is less of an epic fight and more of an epic annihilation, a wasp tears a bee in half before casually flying away with half of its carcass, probably to show all his wasp bros his new trophy.

The video, posted to YouTube and Reddit by user sublimegismo shows a group of friends marveling at the beauty of nature while more than likely participating in smoking some nature as well.

The video is a perfect mix of terrifying visuals and hilarious audio.

Is it possible that these are the same dudes who were viciously karate-kicked by a ninja squirrel?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/23/wasp-cuts-bee-in-half-video_n_3804971.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

Refreshing Drink-Bee spotted Sipping Tears of River Turtle in Amazon - via Herp Digest

This Week in Conservation Science (Magazine), 10/10/12, While roaming a national park in the Amazon, a team of ecologists and teenagers came across an arresting sight: a bee drinking a turtle’s tears.

The researchers describe this unusual scene in an article published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. “The Bee and the Turtle may sound like a fable by Jean de La Fontaine,” they write, but the observation is in fact “the first documentation of tear-feeding behavior by solitary bees on river turtles.”

The ecologists — one accompanied by his teenage children — flew from Quito, Ecuador to a town at the Amazon’s outskirts, then travelled by canoe into Yasuní National Park. The area is teeming with wildlife: A 2010 study concluded that Yasuní is one of the most species-rich spots on the planet. The park’s high biodiversity made it “the perfect place to stumble onto exciting interactions, behaviors, and ecological mysteries,” the authors write.

The teenagers noticed a bee drinking a yellow-spotted river turtle’s tears, and the researchers watched the odd behavior closely. Later, the team found out that some insects are already known to feed on the tears of animals such as deer and crocodiles. Tears contain the nutrient sodium, which isn’t as abundant on land as in the ocean.

The authors urge researchers to place more importance on observing nature directly. “While ecologists make ever-greater advances in modeling,” they note, “in-the-field observation of species continues to be neglected.” — Roberta Kwok | 8 October 2012

Source: Dangles, O. and J. Casas. 2012. The bee and the turtle: a fable from Yasuní National Park. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 10: 446-447.