Hylaeus navai woman. Found on the Viti Levu and Taveuni islands of Fiji, this species is still only understood from the women, but is named in honor of Navai Village and their long-term support of Fijian bee research. Credit: James Dorey PhotographyScientists have discovered a previously unknown species radiation of masked bees, which is limited to the tree canopies of Pacific islands.In 1934, Elwood Zimmerman, an American entomologist who was an undergrad at Berkeley at the time, participated in the Mangarevan exploration to Polynesia. He collected samples that included three small (4 mm in length), orange-brown singular bees, which were discovered on tahetahe flowers in the Tuamotu Archipelago.The specimens rested undisturbed in the Bernice P Bishop Museum of Honolulu till 1965, when the famous bee expert Prof Charles Michener examined them. He explained them as a species new to science: Hylaeus tuamotuensis, or Tuamotus masked bee, in the household Colletidae.How these small bees had reached French Polynesia was a secret: its nearest known loved ones lived in Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand, more than 3,000 km west of Tuamotu. Whats more, the new species had actually never ever been collected once again and was feared extinct– until the present day.Much of the research would be difficult without the assistance of locals who serve as guides, hosts, and good friends. Here, guides and scientists time out for a break while raising to Lake Tagimoucia in tropical heat. Credit: James Dorey PhotographyNow, 59 years later, the puzzle has been responded to in a new study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.” Here we reveal that, regardless of nearly a years of sampling for bees in Fiji, there is a whole group of types that flew right over our heads up until now. By checking out brand-new tasting methods, we found an unidentified species radiation of Hylaeus masked bees in the forest canopy,” said Dr James Dorey, a speaker at the University of Wollongong and an adjunct speaker at Flinders University and lead author of the research study.” With these bees, we can solve the secret: the forefathers of H. tuamotuensis reached French Polynesia by island-hopping by means of Fiji and the southwest Pacific!” Navai Village on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji. Including locals, guides, hosts, and Flinders University/University of South Australia students that were moneyed by the Governments New Colombo Plan in 2019. Credit: James Dorey PhotographyNew to scienceThere, the team of authors explains eight brand-new species of Hylaeus, found between 2014 and 2019 in the Pacific and shown by DNA barcoding and morphology to be loved ones of Tuamotus masked bee– no longer an anomaly.Six of the freshly discovered species are from the Fijian archipelago: called the straight-faced, little yellow-spotted, and Navais Hylaeus from the island of Viti Levu, and the white-spotted, open-faced, and velis Hylaeus from Taveuni. Chuuks Hylaeus was discovered on Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia, and the golden-green Hylaeus on Tahiti in French Polynesia, 450 km southwest of Tuamotu.This little bee (3– 5 mm) bee Hylaeus derectus is only recognized so far from near Mt Nadarivatu on Viti Levu, Fiji. It was gathered from a canopy-flowering mistletoe. Credit: James Dorey PhotographyThe team was only able to discover the brand-new types by tasting from the tree canopy on these islands. Previous sampling efforts had focused on blooming plants at ground level, which the brand-new species appear to avoid. Also unexpected was that the new species appear to choose red flowers, as the sensitivity of a lot of bees to red light is poor.” It wasnt till we brought really long nets to Fiji and started gathering from the trees that we began to discover our mysterious little bees. Possibly we need to not be amazed when the etymology of Hylaeus might mean coming from the forest,” said Dorey.More discoveries anticipated soonHundreds of islands lie in between Fiji and French Polynesia, for instance, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands, and Wallis and Futuna. Now that the scientists know to look for them in the canopy, they anticipate to discover numerous more Hylaeus types on those islands.But how did the bees hop in between islands? Their normal flight variety is unidentified, but likely only a couple of kilometers.Mount Tomanivi is Fijis greatest peak at 1,324 m above water level. It is home to distinct bee types, although it has yet to be particularly sampled for new Hylaeus bees. Credit: James Dorey Photography” Because a lot of masked bees nest in wood, its most likely that they rafted between islands, especially when hurricanes clean masses of plant products down rivers and out to sea. It is also possible that they were blown by high winds, but that would have been a far more dangerous journey for our little bees,” said Dorey.Guardians of the forestsHow long ago these dispersal events happened cant be solved yet from the readily available DNA data. Nor do the authors understand how common the brand-new types are on the islands to which they seem endemic.” [We named velis Hylaeus] for the veli of Fijian folklore who are effective little individuals related to forests. Accounts of the veli are varied and they were frequently seen in a positive light, but they might also threaten, for instance, if you sliced down their preferred trees. For this reason, the name is suggested to conjure up a sense of obligation for safeguarding these new forest-specialist species and their trees,” reminded the authors.Reference: “Canopy specialist Hylaeus bees highlight sampling biases and resolve Micheners mystery” by James B. Dorey, Olivia K. Davies, Karl N. Magnacca, Michael P. Schwarz, Amy-Marie Gilpin, Thibault Ramage, Marika Tuiwawa, Scott V. C. Groom, Mark I. Stevens and Ben A. Parslow, 26 January 2024, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.DOI: 10.3389/ fevo.2024.1339446.
He gathered samples that consisted of 3 little (4 mm in length), orange-brown singular bees, which were found on tahetahe flowers in the Tuamotu Archipelago.The specimens rested undisturbed in the Bernice P Bishop Museum of Honolulu until 1965, when the famous bee specialist Prof Charles Michener examined them. He described them as a types new to science: Hylaeus tuamotuensis, or Tuamotus masked bee, in the family Colletidae.How these small bees had actually reached French Polynesia was a mystery: its nearest known family members lived in Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand, more than 3,000 km west of Tuamotu. Credit: James Dorey PhotographyNew to scienceThere, the group of authors explains eight brand-new types of Hylaeus, discovered in between 2014 and 2019 in the Pacific and shown by DNA barcoding and morphology to be family members of Tuamotus masked bee– no longer an anomaly.Six of the newly found types are from the Fijian island chain: called the straight-faced, little yellow-spotted, and Navais Hylaeus from the island of Viti Levu, and the white-spotted, open-faced, and velis Hylaeus from Taveuni. Chuuks Hylaeus was discovered on Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia, and the golden-green Hylaeus on Tahiti in French Polynesia, 450 km southwest of Tuamotu.This little bee (3– 5 mm) bee Hylaeus derectus is just known thus far from near Mt Nadarivatu on Viti Levu, Fiji. It is home to special bee species, although it has yet to be particularly tested for new Hylaeus bees.
