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The wasps and bees around your home
Guide 4 · Bees
Australia has over 1,500 species of native bees, around 200 of them in the Sydney region, and most live alone in nests. The stingless bees are the only native bees without a sting; the females of all the others have one, but many are too small to deliver an effective dose of venom to people.
General information, drawn from the Australian Museum’s insect factsheets, which are the place to check an identification; for a sting, follow healthdirect.
Bees sit in the insect order Hymenoptera alongside wasps, ants and sawflies. Australia’s bees fall mainly into four families:
Most bees live alone in nests. Some nest alongside each other in small to large groups, which the Australian Museum likens to flats in an apartment block, and a few are truly social, with a queen, males and a large number of sterile workers.
They nest in holes, hollows or burrows in wood, soil, plant stems and rock crevices, and some in the nests of unrelated bee species. Bees eat nectar and pollen throughout their lives, are mostly active during the day, and many species have been seen sleeping in groups at night.
The honey bee is not native: early European settlers brought it to Australia for honey, and it is now wild throughout most of the southern states. It is generally brown and thickly hairy, its abdomen striped in dull yellow and brown.
The Australian Museum notes that stingless bees are the one group of native bees living in large social hives. They are very dark, far smaller than honey bees (under 5mm) and have no sting. Some other native bees can resemble honey bees, but they are not aggressive and their sting is not barbed. That “under 5mm” figure is from the Museum’s honey bee page; its stingless bee page, used for the bar below, gives 4–5 mm.
Each bar shows the size range the Australian Museum gives, on the same scale.
Tetragonula carbonaria, also called the sugarbag bee
The only truly social bee in the Sydney area. Its nest, usually in the trunk of a large tree, can hold several thousand bees, built from a waxy substance the workers secrete and resin collected from trees, with a spiral-shaped honeycomb centre.
Found in coastal areas from Queensland to southern New South Wales. It is stingless and harmless to people, and its thin honey can be used as bush tucker.
Amegilla chlorocyanea
Iridescent blue or turquoise bands across a black abdomen, and a darting, hovering flight. Found throughout most of Australia.
It nests in burrows, often in the ground, but also in decaying sandstone and soft mortar.
Xylocopa bombylans
Bright metallic colours that shift from purple to yellowy green, and a deep droning noise in flight. Found in eastern Australia north of Sydney.
It cuts its entrance into soft wood, such as dead banksia; the nest is usually a single tunnel about 30 cm long.
Megachile species
Common visitors to Sydney gardens. Gardeners may notice circular holes in soft-leaved plants such as roses: the female cuts them to line her nest.
Not every species in the genus cuts leaves; some build their nests with resin.
Subfamily Hylaeinae
Named for the yellow or white markings on their faces. Many species nest in twigs, branches and reeds.
The Museum says nowhere else in the world has as many of them, or as many kinds, probably because Australia’s wide range of eucalypts gives them pollen and places to nest.
Among the most commonly encountered bees around Sydney. They nest in dried-out plant stems, including the introduced weed lantana, often with a female guarding the entrance.
Unlike most native bees, adult reed bees survive the winter, using their nests as hibernating chambers.
The Australian Museum calls bees key pollinators of many native plant species, and says Indigenous people have long used the honey and nests of native bees as valuable sources of food and wax.
Some native bees use a technique called buzz pollination, which certain native flowering plants require. The blue-banded bee curls around a flower’s anther and vibrates to shake the pollen free; honey bees cannot do this. The Museum adds that some wild flowers have suffered from the presence of honey bees, because only native bees can pollinate them.
The national outbreak page says Australian native bees are not affected by varroa mite, which attacks European honey bees and the Asian honey bee. In Queensland, native beehives do not need to be registered. For honey bee keepers, see varroa mite and beekeepers.
Females of most species can. Stingless bees have no sting at all; the females of all the other native bees have one, but many are too small to deliver an effective dose of venom to people. The largest species, though not aggressive, can deliver a painful sting.
healthdirect notes that stings from native Australian bees can also cause an allergic reaction. Its first-aid steps are on stings and allergic reactions.
