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Meet the Austroplebeia Species

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Meet the Austroplebeia Species ARTICLE TWENTY FIVE MEET THE Article 25 February 2016 AUSTROPLEBEIA SPECIES – A GUIDE TO AUSSIE BEE’S REVISION PAPER by Dr Anne Dollin Australian Native Bee Research Centre February 2016 HE Austroplebeia are a group of gentle, prettily-marked stingless bees found in northern, eastern and central parts of Australia and in New Guinea. The behaviour of these bees is fascinating but it was extremely difficult to Tidentify their species. After investigations stretching over three decades, we have finally sorted out the species of these beautiful bees. In November 2015, we published a 73 page scientific paper about theAustroplebeia stingless bees of Australia and New Guinea, in a major international journal. It was written in collaboration with Danish bee expert, Dr Claus Rasmussen. We presented a new classification for ourAustroplebeia stingless bees. We identified five species in Australia and New Guinea. This included one new species that we discovered and named in the Northern Territory. We also described the workers, males, queens and nests of all the species. Would you just like to know the key points? > See our overview of this new classification on pages 2–3. Would you like to read more about how the analysis was done and learn about each of the five species in detail? > Read our full guide to Aussie Bee’s Austroplebeia revision on pages 4–21. Our Austroplebeia Revision Paper: ‘Australian and New Guinean stingless bees of the genus Austroplebeia (Hymenoptera: Apidae)—a revision’ by Anne Dollin, Les Dollin and Claus Rasmussen, was published in November 2015 in Zootaxa, 4047: 1–73. PROMOTING THE PRESERVATION AND ENJOYMENT OF AUSTRALIAN NATIVE BEES © Australian Native Bee Research Centre, PO Box 74, North Richmond NSW 2754 Australia Aussie Bee Website: www.aussiebee.com.au Page 1 An Overview of the New Classification The most popular native bees in Australia are our stingless social bees. They are divided into two groups or genera: Tetragonula (previously called Trigona) and Article 25 Austroplebeia. However, there had long been no clear way to distinguish the species February 2016 of our Australian stingless bees. My husband, Les, and I began studying stingless bees 35 years ago. We undertook ten major native bee safaris right across the continent over the years, systematically studying all of the species of stingless bees in Australia.1 The Tetragonula Bees Five Tetragonula species were identified in a paper that we wrote with Japanese expert, Professor SF Sakagami, in 1997.2 One extra species, T. davenporti, was added by Dr Pierre Franck in 2004, based on a DNA study. Below, one of our most colourful species – an Austroplebeia australis worker with a glowing orange abdomen. Photo by The Austroplebeia Bees Dianne Clarke. The Austroplebeia species proved to be far harder to classify. However, we recently managed to identify all the Austroplebeia species in a 2015 paper that we wrote with Danish expert, Dr Claus Rasmussen.3 This paper was the result of three years of intensive microscope work, that we performed on bees sampled from 177 Aus- troplebeia nests right across Australia. Our work was built upon some high-tech analyses that we did with Dr Megan Halcroft and her colleagues in 2009–2011. The colour markings of the bees turned out to be rather unreliable for distinguishing the Austroplebeia species. The bees’ colour markings varied a great deal within the nests. Instead we found that particular leg measurements and hair patterns were more useful for distinguishing the species. More details about this will be published in Edition 3 of our Booklet 4: How to recognise the different types of Australian stingless bees,4 in mid 2016. Early entomologists had previously published nine species names for the Austrop- lebeia. Part of our task was to match up these nine old names with our current Austroplebeia bees. The rules for naming animals say that we must use the first name that was ever published for a particular species. If more than one name exists for a species, then only the oldest name must be used. Here are our results! The Austroplebeia of Australia and New Guinea belong to five different species: [listed from the species with the most colour markings — to the species with fewest colour markings] Austroplebeia cincta — named in 1898 Austroplebeia essingtoni — named in 1905 Austroplebeia australis ­­— named in 1898 Four more names were published for this species in later years: A. percincta, A. cockerelli, A. ornata and A. websteri. Its first published name wasA. australis. So this species should now be called A. australis. Austroplebeia cassiae — named in 1910 One more name was published for this species 22 years later: A. symei. Its first published name wasA. cassiae. So this species should now be called A. cassiae. and Austroplebeia magna a New Species that we found in the Northern Territory and named in 2015. Right: A worker bee of the new NT species, Austroplebeia magna. This is the Austroplebeia species with the darkest colouring. PROMOTING THE PRESERVATION AND ENJOYMENT OF AUSTRALIAN NATIVE BEES © Australian Native Bee Research Centre, PO Box 74, North Richmond NSW 2754 Australia Aussie Bee Website: www.aussiebee.com.au Page 2 Based on our revision, Article 25 there are five currently recognised February 2016 Austroplebeia species: Species name & Distribution Colouring Remarks More length of worker details Austroplebeia New Guinea and north Bright yellow bands on the face Elongated nest entrance Pages cincta QLD and thorax. tunnels. 9–10 A distinctive yellow patch Builds a unique brood 3.5 mm underneath the wing on the side comb with the new cells NT of the thorax. WA QLD waxed into concentric NSW shells. Austroplebeia Northern areas of WA Usually has broad cream Usually nests in small Pages and NT markings on the face and thorax hollow trees but may 11–12 essingtoni nest in wall cavities or crevices in cliffs 3.5 mm Austroplebeia A very widespread In eastern and western areas of Our data show that these Pages species found in the continent the workers have bees are all the same 13–15 australis NSW, QLD, NT and two to four cream marks on the species, despite their WA rear of their thorax. colour variations. 4 mm In central areas the workers are Other old names for more brightly marked with addi- this species were: A. tional side bands on the thorax. percincta, A. cockerelli, The workers’ abdomens may A. ornata and A. be black, ochre, red or even a websteri. These four old glowing orange. names should no longer be used. Austroplebeia Northern and eastern Dark. The rear edge of their The hair on the worker’s Pages QLD thorax normally just has two dull face is much denser in 16–17 cassiae cream marks or may be A. cassiae than in A. completely black. australis. 4 mm In recent years, these bees were often called A. symei. Austroplebeia Northern NT and far Dark. The rear edge of the This is a new species we Pages northwest QLD thorax may have two dull cream found in NT. 18–19 magna marks. Some workers have no The name refers to the cream marks at all on the face or 4 mm broad segments on this thorax. bee’s hind legs: ‘magna’ is a Latin word for ‘large’. PROMOTING THE PRESERVATION AND ENJOYMENT OF AUSTRALIAN NATIVE BEES © Australian Native Bee Research Centre, PO Box 74, North Richmond NSW 2754 Australia Aussie Bee Website: www.aussiebee.com.au Page 3 A full guide to Aussie Bee’s Austroplebeia revision Article 25 Our Australian stingless bees are kept by beekeepers across the country. They make February 2016 wonderful displays for teaching children, produce delicious honey, and are valuable for crop pollination. However, despite this intense interest, the species names of our stingless bees had long been in a state of chaos. There were no good descriptions of the species and no clear ways to identify them. Back in 1980, my husband, Les, and I set ourselves the goal of sorting out all of Australia’s stingless bee species. We had no idea what a huge task that would be! We undertook ten major outback native bee safaris right across Australia, systematically visiting each place where a stingless bee species had previously been named. We explored Cape York, Arnhem Land, Central Australia and The Kimberley.1 We searched for stingless bee nests in each area, studied nest structures and examined workers, males and queens of each va- riety that we found. Many Aboriginal people, station owners and beekeepers helped us in our search and we progressively learned all we could about every stingless bee species in Australia. One of our outback native bee safaris on Cape York, in our blue Landcruiser with an extension ladder on the roof rack. Australia’s Tetragonula and Austroplebeia stingless bees Australia’s stingless bees are small, black native bees (about 4 mm long) that are found in northern, eastern and central parts of the continent. They live in social colonies containing hundreds or thousands of bees. They usually build nests inside hollow trees, but some species nest in other cavities, such as inside walls or in crevices in cliffs. The colonies have workers, males and queens, similar to the familiar introduced European honeybees. Stingless bees make small quantities of a delicious tangy honey called ‘sugarbag’. They are also valuable pollinators. We have two groups of stingless bees in Australia. The Tetragonula bees (previously called Trigona) are black, with short white hair on their face and sides. The Austroplebeia bees usually have small cream or yellow markings on their face and thorax. The Tetragonula Bees In 1982, a Japanese scientist, Professor Shôichi Sakagami, offered to collaborate with us.
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