Abstract
Understanding the nesting and foraging requirements of bee species is important for developing effective conservation strategies, as well as ensuring the continued delivery of pollination services to native and agricultural plant species. Among wild bee pollinators, ground-nesting halictid bees have been found to be important pollinators of both native and agricultural plant species. Yet, despite the ecological importance of halictid bees, this group remain underrepresented in ecological research with very few studies, particularly in Australia. In order to address some of these gaps, the nest characteristics, foraging activity, and floral resource preferences of the native Australian ground-nesting bee, Lipotriches (Austronomia) muscosa, were investigated. Through a visual survey across potential ground-nesting bee habitats in Richmond, NSW, a nesting aggregation of this species was located in loamy soils within raised garden beds at the Greening Australia seed production site. Morphological analysis, together with molecular characterisation of bees collected from the nest site, confirmed that all the specimens belonged to L. muscosa.Examination of nest characteristics revealed that nest entrances had an average diameter of 5.31 ± 0.11 mm (n=50) and were constructed very close to one another (average minimum distance of 18 ± 3.2 mm (n=20)). Marking of females emerging from individual nests revealed that a single nest entrance is often shared between five and eleven individuals, suggesting a higher degree of sociality. However, this study also found evidence of subterranean connections between nests with marked females observed entering and then existing through different, nearby nest entrances whilst foraging throughout the day.
Pollen load analysis through pollen metabarcoding revealed that this species collected pollen from 22 different plant families but exhibited a marked preference for a small number of families, particularly Solanaceae, which was consistently highly prevalent in samples across the ten-week sampling period. Analysis of individual bee pollen loads showed that individuals collected pollen from a range of 3–16 plant genera, though pollen loads were typically dominated by only a few genera. Pollen composition collected by this species varied significantly across the weeks, with the greatest change seen during the initial weeks of the study, stabilising to a more consistent composition towards the end of the flight season.
| Date of Thesis submission | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Amy-Marie Gilpin (Supervisor), Mani Chellappan (Supervisor), James Cook (Supervisor) & Claire Allison (Supervisor) |
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