Bees in the Neighbourhood

By Stan Glowacki
President, Gippsland Apiarists Association Inc

Bee entering hollow cell of honeycomb

When most people think of bees, the first thought is of the European honey bee or an Australian commercial honey bee. Being stung as a child can carry into adult life and may have fostered a dislike of Australian commercial honey bees. Australian native bees come in all shapes and sizes and most go unnoticed in our parks and gardens. The majority are solitary bees and do not form social hives like some of their cousins in NSW and places north.

Over the last couple of years, I have been catching native bees in Jeeralang Junction and sending them up to NSW for identification at the Native Bee Research Centre. With this location being on the fringe of Churchill, it may be reasonably concluded that these bees may also be living in your neighborhood or Mathison Park. Native bees and Australian commercial honeybees have been observed sharing the same flowers at the same time.

How to identify a native bee:

Generally speaking, native bees have four wings, although when edges are interlocked and folded they may appear as two, hairy legs and or body hair for carrying pollen, Males generally have longer antennae than the females. As always, there are exceptions to the rule. Some of the common native bees are listed below.

Blue Banded Bees:
  • Found in every state except Tasmania.
  • Females build solitary nests but may share a common entrance in soft sand stone of mud bricks.
  • Series of oval shaped cells lined with waterproof secretions.
  • Sealed with an earthen cap and the burrow entrance filled in.
  • Seven weeks to hatch, life span forty days.
  • Bees not hatched by late autumn remain as prepupa until spring.
  • Males roost together on a grass stalk by clamping jaws onto stem and folding legs up.
Reed Bees:
  • Small Bee with black head and thorax, red/brown colouring on abdomen approximately 5-6mm long.
  • Nests in pithy stems, and dry leaf stems of tree ferns. Unlike other native bees that die in winter, reed bees will remain dormant in the nest.
Common Wasp mimic bee:
  • Family Colletidae, Hyleoides concinna
  • Approx. 10-12mm long orange abdomen with one thick black stripe, violet black wings.
  • Easily confused as a wasp.
  • Nests in old longicorn beetle tunnels, in stumps, logs and fallen branches. Nest lined and sealed with a cellophane secretion.

More on building nesting sites for native bees in the next issue.