It’s what scientists don’t know about native Australian bees that has them deeply concerned.
While there is no shortage of eyes on European honey bees — and the impacts varroa mite, pesticides, climate change and other threats have on their populations — there is a paucity of research on native bees.
I like Dr Prendergasts style. She looks like she’s gonna catch them all.
Artamus leucorynchus
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“There are thousands of native bee species and in some cases, we don’t know their distribution, we don’t know what they forage on, where they nest or their population changes.”
"Increasingly hotter and drier weather systems will affect how well trees flower and therefore how much pollen and nectar they provide for insect foragers or even if certain plant varieties and landscapes persist.
"They are a hidden, unpaid workforce that contribute as much as honey bees do to pollinate our food crops.
It’s more than $14 billion per year of free work in measurable value for food and fibre," Dr Carrucan said.
“It’s believed bees evolved from wasps and are the vegetarian cousins to the omnivorous wasps.”
“Even within the Amegilla blue-banded bee genus, some have blue bands, some have white bands, some have green bands, and some have no bands.”
The original article contains 141 words, the summary contains 141 words. Saved 0%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
