Bees of Otago
Did you know there are 20 species of native bees in Otago? They look and behave quite differently to their foreign cousins like the widely known honey bee.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, we have 41 species of pī or bees, encompassing both native and introduced species.
We have 28 species of native bees in Aotearoa New Zealand, including a total of 20 species found in Otago.
While some of our native bees are very common, others are much more elusive. And due to being relatively small and not coming in big numbers, they're often overseen and most people don't even know of their existence.
We have 13 introduced bee species in Aotearoa New Zealand, including the 10 species in Otago.
When many people think of a bee species, they picture the introduced pī honi or honey bee, cultivated for thousands of years and deliberately spread all over the world, or one of the four species of pīrorohu or bumble bee, some of the most iconic insect species who were introduced to Aotearoa New Zealand to pollinate red clover and lucerne.
Aotearoa New Zealand’s bee fauna represents a minute fraction of the more than 20,000 species believed to occur globally.
Our native bees fall into four different genera (groups): Leioproctus, Nesocolletes, Hylaeus, and Lasioglossum.
A genus (plural: genera) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and extinct organisms.
Taxonomy, in a broad sense the science of classification, but more strictly the classification of living and extinct organisms—i.e., biological classification. This is by arranging organisms into natural, related groups based on some common factor related to each.
Native bees are quite different from the commonly known introduced honey bee or bumble bee. For example, they do not make honey and very rarely sting – this is because they do not need to protect a honey harvest and a colony, being mostly solitary.
Native bees also don’t fly long distances when foraging, staying in a radius of approximately 100 metres to their nest. They have very short tongues that are perfect to visit and pollinate the small flowers of native plants, including, mistletoe, mānuka and kānuka. However, like the honey bee, they can also pollinate widespread some vegetable crops and exotic flowers.
In Otago we have 13 species of Leioproctus and Nesocolletes bees. They grow up to 5 to 12 mm long and have thick black hairs, except for the South Island (Te Waipounamu) species Leioproctus fulvescens, which is covered in orange-yellow hair.
The females of Leioproctus and Nesocolletes bees make underground burrows in dirt banks up to 30 cm long to nest, where they lay 1 egg in each hole. They are sometimes referred to as ‘plaster bees’ because of the lining on the walls of their burrows.
The smallest group of native bees are the Lasioglossum bees, with only three species of in Otago. They range from 4 to 8 mm in length, have only a few tiny hairs, and can appear black or greenish in colour. They nest in holes in the soil like the Leioproctus bees but have a very basic soil structure as a few females may nest in the same hole.
Lasioglossum bees are known as ‘sweat bees’ as they are attracted to sweaty skin.
Hylaeus bees appear almost shiny black in colour as they are hairless but have yellow or write markings on the thorax and head. Their length ranges from 7 to 9 mm. Unlike their relatives Leioproctus and Lasioglossum, they nest in plant material: hollow dead stems, in twigs, branches, or holes drilled by other insects in logs. We have four species of Hylaeus in Otago.
Hylaeus bees are known as ‘masked bees’ due to the yellow or white patterns on their black heads.
To find out more about bees in Aotearoa New Zealand, visit the For the Love of Bees or Jandt Lab websites below. A resource developed by the Jandt Lab on how to identify bees is also linked.
