[Pollinator] Fwd: FW: myrtle rust

[Peter Bernhardt]

Dear  Colleagues:

Dr Peter Wilson of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust (Sydney, NSW)
took the attached photo.  The little black trigonid bee is native to
Australia.  It used to be in genus, Trigona. It is now in gnus Tetragonula
and I believe that 6 species are recognized in Australia at the moment.
That's not pollen it's collecting.  That's the spores of rust fungus
(Teliomycota) known to infect members of the Eucalyptus family
(Myrtaceae).  I am turning the photo over to mycologist, Meredith
Blackwell.  Meredith, isn't this the teliospore (2n) stage?  Spore stages
of rusts fungi are complex and have different genetic stages as they change
their hosts in the course of the life-cycle.  Wheat rust (for example) has
certain stages on wheat but sends out a spore stage to attack barberry
(Berberis).  It has been suspected for sometime that some bees mistake the
teliospore stage of some rusts for pollen but Meredith and Peter Kevan may
be able to point us to publications.

I'm not here to work on this interaction but my host has a pet colony of
this bee on her veranda.  They are given away for free by the Town Council
of St. Ives, New South Wales.  If you take good care of the bees the
Council returns each year to divide the colony and gives it to another
family in the suburbs.  I will take photos of the bee box tomorrow and send
them on.  The other day, Wendy thought she saw a blue-banded bee (Amegilla)
foraging for spores on a Eucalyptus on her property.  I saw the same bee
but did not see it forage on infected leaves.

Peter
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wendy Grimm <wagrimm at tpg.com.au>
Date: Fri, Jan 1, 2016 at 10:12 PM
Subject: FW: myrtle rust
To: Peter Bernhardt <bernhap2 at slu.edu>


Dear Peter,
Photo of stingless native bee collecting myrtle rust spores courtesy of from
Jonathan Leadbeater via Dr Peter Wilson
Regards,
Wendy Grimm


From: Peter Wilson [mailto:Peter.Wilson at rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au]
Sent: Friday, 6 March 2015 9:48 AM
To: Wendy Grimm
Subject: myrtle rust

Dear Wendy

Here is the picture of the stingless bee and the myrtle rust spores.

Dr Peter G. Wilson
Principal Research Scientist
National Herbarium of N.S.W.

Botanic Gardens & Centennial Parklands
T (02) 9231 8158
E peter.wilson at rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au<mailto:peter.wilson at rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au>
Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

[Version 5 from RBG]


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