20th Of May - World Bee Day

World Bee Day is a wonderful day, a day we set aside each year to celebrate the bees and other incredible pollinators that keep this world,  and us healthy and fed.

Today most people will jump straight to the honeybee, Apis mellifera, however these guys are doing fairly well! Don't get me wrong, without the honeybee we would suffer slightly, as would some plants but what we really need to protect and raise awareness for is our native bees and other native pollinators.

Here in the land down under we have a stunning array of native pollinators, including moths and butterflies, wasps, hoverflies (and non-insect pollinators such as bats, flying foxes and possums).

These remarkable creatures are what are responsible for most of our native and wildflower pollination, but also play a significant role in crop pollination.

So, Bee Day! Instead of our honeybee friends let's have a look at a couple of native buzzies and other pollinators we can help!

The blue-banded bee, teddy-bear bee, greater carpenter bee and metallic carpenter bee, all perform a very specialised form of pollination, where they grab the flowers in their tiny little legs, and vibrate all their tiny flight muscles, causing the pollen to release. This is called buzz pollination! 

These bees are therefore vital for crops like tomatoes, eggplant and kiwifruit. But also some native plants such as dianella.

We have a gigantic array of native butterflies and moths too, that are just as important! In and around the Perth area alone there are roughly 40 species of butterfly, ranging from 2cm to 9cm wingspan. Moth wise, Australia has around 10,0000 species, everything feom the extremely plain and barely noticeable to extravagant and huge!

INaturalist.com do a fantastic job of trying to gather the knowledge of these incredible pollinators, so let's give them a hand, grab a camera, take notice and support our pollinators.

Remember avoid har.ful pesticides and insecticides!!