<div dir="auto"><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:1rem;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)" dir="auto">Hi Beeple, </div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:1rem;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)" dir="auto">I have a new paper published! Just in time for World Bee Day, and it drives home the message that we can no longer pretend that there is no conflict between honey bees and native bees, and rather the introduced invasive species, the European honey bee, can reduce the ability of our native bees to raise future generations.</div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:1rem;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)">Using bee hotels, I found that increased honey bee densities were associated with increased mortality, a male-biased sex ratio (which does not bode well for the sustainability of native bee populations), and greater pollen overlap was associated with fewer provisioned cells. Honey bees also were supergeneralists, foraging on a far greater array of pollen, including exotic plants, potentially contributing to spread of weedy invasive garden species.</div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:1rem;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)">Read more in my #openaccess article 'Introduced honey bees have the potential to reduce fitness of cavity-nesting native bees in terms of a male bias sex ratio, brood mortality and reduced reproduction' in Frontiers in Bee Science Special Issue: Women in Bee Science</div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)"><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bee-science/articles/10.3389/frbee.2025.1508958/full" style="font-family:aptos,aptos_embeddedfont,aptos_msfontservice,calibri,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:0.916669rem;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(66,133,244);color:rgb(66,133,244)">https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bee-science/articles/10.3389/frbee.2025.1508958/full</a></div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)"><br></div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:1rem;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)">We need to redirect our focus, funding and support towards wild bees. These are the ones that are at risk, not honey bees, and promoting honey bees can jeopardise native bee populations.</div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:1rem;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)" dir="auto"><br></div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:1rem;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)" dir="auto">Further experiments are required - this is just the start but finding funding to research native bees, and especially controversial topics like honeybee competition is challenging . </div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)" dir="auto"><span style="font-size:1rem;font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue""><br></span></div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)" dir="auto"><span style="font-size:1rem;font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue"">Thank you to my coauthors Zong-Xin Ren, Lynne Milne, Peter Kevan, and Mark Murphy</span><br></div><div style="font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue";font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:1px;text-decoration:none;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0);border-color:rgb(49,49,49);color:rgb(49,49,49)" dir="auto"><span style="font-size:1rem;font-family:-apple-system,"helvetica neue"">And to Forrest Research Foundation, City of Stirling, Hesperia and Australian Wildlife Society for their support </span></div></div><br clear="all"><br clear="all"><div dir="auto"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Dr Kit Prendergast<div>Native bee scientist, conservation biologist and zoologist</div><div>University of Southern QLD Postdoctoral Researcher (Pollination Ecology)</div><div>Adjunct Curtin University and Forrest Scholar Alumni</div><div><br></div><div>Find native bee resources and more on my Patreon The Bee Babette: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/c/TheBeeBabette" target="_blank">https://www.patreon.com/c/TheBeeBabette</a></div><div><br></div><div>ORCiD: <u><a href="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099" target="_blank">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099</a></u> </div><div>Research: <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kit-Prendergast/research" target="_blank">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kit-Prendergast/research</a></div><div>YouTube channel The Bee Babette: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBeeBabette" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBeeBabette</a> </div><div>'Creating a Haven for Native Bees': <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CreatingaHavenforNativeBeesBook/" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/CreatingaHavenforNativeBeesBook/</a></div><div>Wild Bee artwork: <a href="https://www.redbubble.com/people/BeeBabette/explore?asc=u&page=1&sortOrder=recent" target="_blank">https://www.redbubble.com/people/BeeBabette/explore?asc=u&page=1&sortOrder=recent</a></div><div>Insta: @bee.babette_performer:</div><div><a href="https://www.instagram.com/bee.babette_performer/?hl=en" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/bee.babette_performer/?hl=en</a></div><div><img width="92" height="96" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4wwvyjOk7p3iocG1WNlsSbsOwGFmIJhaMk4K_nC9kLHrvJgaGNxLwmvtT6mIHjxqkbW5KW44QE"><br><div></div></div></div></div></div></div>