Solitary Bee

This is the time of year to look for native bees in your area. If you are near native bush and on a pathway, perhaps beside a small embankment, look for small pencil-sized holes in the dirt.

If you do see them, look around for a flowering tree. They won’t be too far away - they do not fly far from their nesting site.

I spotted this leioproctus sp. (surely too hairy to be a Lasioglossum sp.) on the tip of a harakeke, flax when walking the Mercer Bay Loop Track near Piha in West Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges.

A tiny Lasioglossum on an exotic verbascum on Pāpāmoa Hills - there isn’t much else flowering so they will go to an exotic for the nectar and pollen.

Native plants are better though as they provide the exact right amount of nutrients for the native bees - a symbiotic relationship that has evolved over millions of years. 🙂

The other day I spotted a Carder Bee visiting my salvia and mint leaves in my garden.

The European Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum), was first detected in Napier around 2006 - likely they got here via a ship in port.

It’s my second sighting as a few years back I saw one in a petunia flower in my mother’s garden just up the road. So it’s official - they are in Pāpāmoa and no doubt, happy in our gardens.

Originally from Europe, African and Western Asia, they have found their way to other countries as well, incl Australia and USA.

It’s a solitary bee species known to aggressively defend flower territories, often attacking honeybees and other insects. They live in existing holes in the ground.

Females scrape fibers (card) from fuzzy plants like lamb's ear for nests, while males use abdominal spines to fight intruders.

I don’t think they are seen as a big threat here (unlike the Asian Hornet!) and are likely to remain as yet another exotic species making NZ their home. 🙂

The "gold bits" on the tips of the crimson pōhutukawa flowers are the anthers, which contain the pollen.

The pōhutukawa flower is made up of a mass of long, vibrant stamens (the red, brush-like part), and at the very tip of each stamen is a small, yellow structure called the anther. This pollen-filled anther is what gives the flower its characteristic gold tips and attracts pollinators like tūī, bellbirds, and bees.

Our native bees are the original and natural pollinators of the pōhutukawa flowers. They have evolved together over millennia, creating a specialized and mutually dependent relationship that sustains both populations. ♥️

It was over five years ago when our borders closed to tourists and I decided to not renew the retail leases for our Colony stores. I sensed it was time for a big change after 25 years in business.

I can’t say I’ve accomplished much since then and often things felt like they were going backwards.

However with more time on my hands, I have been studying our native bees, particularly up Pāpāmoa Hills, Tauranga, near where I live.

We only have 28 native species in NZ which come from just three families, all of which live up on the Hills.

I am amazed that most people only consider honey bees, which are an introduced species. I want to educate New Zealanders about our native solitary bees because they are really important to our ecosystem.

I hope you’ll continue to follow me on my journey as I study and photograph them and I hope you too will become as passionate as I am about our native bees.

Kris

Photo: Lasioglossum bee.

A diet of a hornet consists of about 70% honey bee - which would be devatsting to our honey industry. However they also target aggregations of native solitary bees too… so let’s hope they can wipe this hornet from our country.

NZ now has a narrow window to stop the Asian yellow-legged hornet – here’s how everyone can help Unless New Zealand rapidly scales up its search effort, we could soon be confronting an incursion far tougher and costlier to stamp out.

This is interesting listening to as it talks about how the UK are dealing with the invasion of the Asian hornets.

Apparently in France where the hornet established some 20 years ago or so, the beekeepers have experienced significant losses of honey bees colonies thanks to the hornets.

260 - Hornet invasion in the UK (and how they are fighting back) PolliNation: A Pollinator Health Podcast · Episode