[Pollinator] FW: Bumble bees in Australia

[Peter Kevan]

  _____  

Bumblebee threatens Aust mainland
PM - Tuesday, 20 September , 2005 18:52:44
Reporter: Tim Jeanes
MARK COLVIN: The European bumblebee - beloved of English and American poets
from Walt Whitman to Robert Graves - is, in Australia, nothing but a pest.

Now there are fears that it could eventually prove as damaging to
Australia's environment as the cane toad.

The bumblebee has quickly spread across Tasmania, where it's out-competing
other species.

Now scientists say it's probably only a matter of time before the bumblebee
arrives on the mainland, with dire consequences.

Tim Jeanes reports from Hobart.

(sound of bumblebees buzzing)

TIM JEANES: With their fat, colourful bodies, they're the cute and cuddly
focus of many children's books and toys.

But the European bumblebee is far from friendly when it comes to the
environment, says entomologist Dr Peter McQuillan from the University of
Tasmania.

PETER MCQUILLAN: Environmentally they're as potentially damaging as some of
the more familiar animals like cane toads, for example. I think they'll be
remembered perhaps 50 years from now as one of the unfortunate introductions
into Australia.

TIM JEANES: Bumblebees have now spread across the whole of Tasmania, since
arriving by an unknown source 10 years ago.

Dr McQuillan says it's probably only a matter of time before they make it to
the mainland, either accidentally through travel or trade, or deliberately
by horticulturalists who believe bumblebees can help certain kinds of
glasshouse pollination. 

While research is still relatively scant, Dr McQuillan says damaging
evidence is already emerging.

PETER MCQUILLAN: There's been some documentation in Tasmania that they might
interact with swift parrots, which are an important pollinator of blue gums,
for example - the swift parrot itself is an endangered species. So through
competition with many, many species, they're like to result in these fairly
unfortunate environmental outcomes.

TIM JEANES: Australia's mainland does already have introduced honeybees, but
pollination ecologist Saul Cunningham from the CSIRO says bumblebees pose a
special threat.

SAUL CUNNINGHAM: The really important thing to understand is that these
bumblebees are quite different to the feral honeybee that's already
established in Australia, because they have a behaviour called buzz
pollination - they grab onto the flower, they buzz their wing muscles and
they shake the pollen out. 

Now, this is something that the feral European honeybee hasn't been able to
do. So plants that are adapted to that kind of pollination aren't currently
being affected by the feral honeybee, but will be affected when the
buzz-pollinating bumblebee comes to Australia.

TIM JEANES: Then there's the possibility of disastrous new weed problems.

SAUL CUNNINGHAM: There's a couple of examples that we have already concern
about. One is Scotch Broom, which is an invasive weed in Australia,
especially south-eastern Australia - it's a real cost to pastoralists, and
we know that that's adapted to pollination by bumblebees. 

We also know that bumblebees are especially good at pollinating relatives of
potatoes and tomatoes, and that includes Deadly Nightshade.

TIM JEANES: And it doesn't get any better when it comes to humans, with
Peter McQuillan saying people who are not allergic to honeybees could well
have problems with bumblebees.

PETER MCQUILLAN: They are quite aggressive stingers if they're threatened.
The bees will in fact defend their nests quite aggressively. Unlike
honeybees they can sting repeatedly, they don't have a barb on their sting,
so they can certainly hit you many times.

The profile of proteins in their venom differs somewhat from honeybees, so
different individuals could become quite allergic to them.

TIM JEANES: So this is not good news for the mainland?

PETER MCQUILLAN: I think when you look at the threat they represent to
people, coupled with the fact that they are quite environmentally damaging,
and the fact that they're likely to displace native pollinators, I think in
general they're a bit of a disaster.

MARK COLVIN: Entomologist Dr Peter McQuillan ending that report from Tim
Jeanes.





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.sonic.net/mailman/private/pollinator/attachments/20050922/2226545b/attachment.html