Combining the expertise of many of Australia’s leading native bee researchers, this book is a guide to observing and keeping Australia’s broad range of native bee species. Australian Native Bees, now in a slightly updated new edition, provides a wealth of advice on how you can support and enjoy our native bees, whether you grow broad-acre crops or have an urban backyard. You can learn about: • how bees build nests, forage and provide crucial pollination services • how you can examine and recognise our solitary and semi-social bees: blue banded bees, teddy bear bees, carpenter bees, leafcutters, resin bees, cuckoo bees and more • urban bee ecology • how to build a bee hotel • how to keep the popular stingless bees in specialised hives • the importance of native bees and other crop pollinators, and how managed native bees can be used to pollinate crops • bee biosecurity.

Bees are often thought of as yellow and black striped insects that live in hives and produce honey. However, Australia’s abundant native bees are incredibly diverse in their appearance and habits. Some are yellow and black but others have blue stripes, are iridescent green or wasp-like. Some are social but most are solitary. Some do build nests with wax but others use silk or plant material, burrow in soil or use holes in wood and even gumnuts! A Guide to Native Bees of Australia provides a detailed introduction to the estimated 2000 species of Australian bees. Illustrated with stunning photographs, it describes the form and function of bees, their life-cycle stages, nest architecture, sociality and relationships with plants. It also contains systematic accounts of the five families and 58 genera of Australian bees. Photomicrographs of morphological characters and identification keys allow identification of bees to genus level. Natural history enthusiasts, professional and amateur entomologists and beekeepers will find this an essential guide.

The revised edition of this textbook incorporates more than 70 changes to scientific and common names and the reclassification of some insect species.

The Australian Beekeeping Manual is the most comprehensive reference for both novice and experienced beekeepers in Australia. The accessible yet detailed text, supported by over 350 full-colour photographs and illustrations, covers all the key areas, including the beekeeping equipment needed, how to obtain bees, where to locate them in the garden, and the basics of colony management. There are also in-depth chapters on the lifecycle of the honey bee, extracting honey, creating a bee-friendly garden, entering honey in competitions, pests and diseases, native bees, and rearing queens. A feature of this 2nd edition is the addition of a new chapter on the Flow Hive. The result is an invaluable beekeeping resource that will be referred to time and again, and which can be taken out to the hive for use as an immediate step-by-step guide or read at leisure.

Bees are the darlings of the insect world. It is a joy to see these insects hard at work, peacefully buzzing from flower to flower. Many people recognise the worth of bees, as well as that they face multiple threats. But very few know about the diversity and importance of our native bee species. There are an estimated 2000 to 3000 bee species in Australia, yet we know very little about the vast majority of these and there are many that are yet to be described. Bees of Australia introduces some of our incredible native bees, many of which, if you look closely, can be found in your own garden. Open this book wherever you like or read it from cover to cover. The combination of photography and contributions from some of Australia’s leading bee researchers allows anyone to become enthralled by our native bees. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself looking closer at every flower that you pass in search of our wonderful native bees.

Northern Australia stands out as one of the largest natural areas remaining on Earth - alongside such global treasures as the Amazon rainforests, the boreal conifer forests of Alaska and Canada, and the polar wilderness of Antarctica. Nature remains in abundance in 'the North'. Its intact tropical savannas, rainforests, and free flowing rivers provide a basis for much of the economic activity and the quality of life for residents of the area. THE NATURE OF NORTHERN AUSTRALIA details the latest science on the Northern environment. With increasing debate over the future of Australias often forgotten North, this is a timely examination of its environmental significance, the ecological processes that make it function, and the economies that are compatible with maintaining healthy communities and people and healthy country into the future.

Australian Native Plants: Cultivation and Uses in the Health and Food Industries provides a comprehensive overview of native food crops commercially grown in Australia that possess nutritional and health properties largely unknown on a global basis. These native foods have been consumed traditionally, have a unique flavor diversity, offer significant health promoting effects, and contain useful functional properties. Australian native plant foods have also been identified for their promising antioxidant and antimicrobial properties that have considerable commercial potential. This book is divided into three parts: The first part reviews the cultivation and production of many Australian native plants (ANP), including Anise Myrtle, Bush Tomato, Desert Raisin, Davidson’s Plum, Desert Limes, Australian Finger Lime, Kakadu Plum, Lemon Aspen, Lemon Myrtle, Muntries, Native Pepper, Quandong, Riberry, and Wattle Seed. It then examines the food and health applications of ANP and discusses alternative medicines based on aboriginal traditional knowledge and culture, nutritional characteristics, and bioactive compounds in ANP. In addition, it reviews the anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory properties of ANP and discusses food preservation, antimicrobial activity of ANP, and unique flavors from Australian native plants. The third section covers the commercial applications of ANP. It focuses on native Australian plant extracts and cosmetic applications, processing of native plant foods and ingredients, quality changes during packaging, and storage of Australian native herbs. The final few chapters look into the importance of value chains that connect producers and consumers of native plant foods, new market opportunities for Australian indigenous food plants, and the safety of using native foods as ingredients in the health and food sectors.

This book discusses the interplay among bees, agriculture and the environment. Both managed and wild bees are critical for successful pollination of numerous fruit, vegetable, oilseed and legume seed crops and are considered here. So is treatment of how bees also impact the agro-ecosystem in ways beyond simple pollination, such as by transporting pollen from genetically modified plants and by enhancing biological control strategies. The principles and examples are international. The concept is in line with current thinking of pollination as an important ecological process, and an understanding of agriculture as disturbance ecology.

Bumblebees are familiar and charismatic insects, occurring throughout much of the world. They are increasingly being used as a model organism for studying a wide range of ecological and behavioural concepts, such as social organization, optimal foraging theories, host-parasite interactions, and pollination. Recently they have become a focus for conservationists due to mounting evidence of range coBIOL15ANIB and catastrophic extinctions with some species disappearing from entire continents (e.g. in North America). Only by improving our understanding of their ecology can we devise sensible plans to conserve them. The role of bumblebees as invasive species (e.g. Bombus terrestris in Japan) has also become topical with the growing trade in commercial bumblebee nests for tomato pollination leading to establishment of non-native bumblebees in a number of countries. Since the publication of the first edition of the book, there have been hundreds of research papers published on bumblebees. There is clearly a continuing need for an affordable, well-illustrated, and appealing text that makes accessible all of the major advances in understanding of the behaviour and ecology of bumblebees that have been made in the last 30 years.