bees.

[island1]

That's impressive..... I look at the blue Gums around here and think geez....I wouldn't want to be climbing them! How did they make the notches for climbing? They must have really, really liked possum....

[bobthebeeman]

I have been onto the Tas Museum Aboriginal Culture section curator and the notches were in fact climbing to get at possums in the trees observed by the crewmembers of Tasman's visit, not bees as Eva Crane interpreted. This quest to find the southern limit ot stingless bee presence before Apis is allowing me to talk to a lot of interesting people. Thus far I am fairly confident about Victoria but would really like to find the reason for Darwin adding his comment in "Origin of the Species 4th Ed" It only makes sense if it applies to Tasmania. Any Darwin Experts reading this???
JumpedAngel, the single bee in the bush house is I believe is one of the Lipotriches sp beesand the link below is a photo I took up here in Qld on Westringia
http://www.australiannativebees.com/N_S ... width=1280
Hope it works
If you are looking for stingless bees anywhere, grasstree flowers are an ideal place to start. They will always find those flowers.
There are lots of bee photos on our site to help with ID if you are interested
Bob

[JumpedAngel]

hey Bob

The link doesn't work (not for me), try using some image tags e.g.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/JumpedAngel/TreeClimbers.jpg[/IMG] if that doesn't work then go to your profile page and give yourself permission to use BB code and/or simply uncheck the (Disable BBCode in this post) box beneath the text box when you post something.

Still, I tracked down your website and was much impressed by it, good work!, will use it as a reference in future, caught 2 new types in my orchid trap just yesterday, will try to i.d. and photograph them in the near future.

I hope to go back to my special little spot in South Gippsland this summer and track down whatever may be in the banksia trees, eventually i hope to find the little buggers are still there somewhere.

[island1]

It is no wonder the local bees are struggling. I have been keeping a bit of a watch on the buzzards of late. They can be out at 7am when it is only 7 and 8 degrees c...... they are out until almost twilight...... they have been out for the last few days while it is raining.... and they can be out when it is very windy. Our poor little beggars don't stand a chance!!! And some of the ones I am seeing are HUGE!

[island1]

I see very few native bees here still... so many bumble bees.... I have started swatting them, and my children are trying to help get rid of them. We have reduced the population by about 50 this week so far.... hardly even see a honey bee at the moment! I even started a facebook group to encourage people to try and reduce the escalating population of them.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rid-Tasma ... 5624457367