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Bees - Hymenoptera

There are over 1,500 species of native bees in Australia and around 200 live in the Sydney region. They have a great variety of colours, patterns and sizes, and most live solitary lives, unlike the introduced commercial Honey Bee that lives in colonies. Aboriginal people recognised the value of native stingless bees for their honey thousands of years ago. However, the importance of native bees to the ecology of Australian habitats is only just being realised. Many Australian flowers depend on native bees for pollination.

Features of bees:

• They are vegetarian throughout their life cycle, eating nectar and pollen.
• They are generally furrier than wasps and have feathery or branched hairs.
• Some native bees use a special pollination technique called 'buzz pollination', which certain native flowering plants require for pollination.
• Stingless bees (Trigona and Austroplebeia species) are the only native bees that do not possess a sting.
• The females of all the other native bees have a sting but many are too small to deliver an effective venom dose to humans.
• Although not aggressive, the largest native species can deliver a painful sting.

See also within this site:
Overview of ants, bees, wasps and sawflies
Overview of Insects

Other Links:

• Australian Museum fact sheets: Bees