An awesome day with Dean Haley at Toohey Forest, Brisbane. Dean has been a regular visitor to the local forest over years and today he generously shared his knowledge, showing us many wild stingless bee colonies, Tc and Th. Twenty two people attended the day organised by Dean and the Brisbane Branch of the Australian Native Bee Association.
There has been a few studies done in the forest locating stingless bee colonies with researchers sectioning off areas and checking each tree, finding 15 colonies in a one hectare area, and likely to be hundreds of colonies in the whole forest, mostly being Tetragonula carbonaria (Tc) and it’s thought that Tetragonula hockingsi (Th) are a more recent population as they didn’t naturally occur in the area. The research also showed that Th didn’t fare as well with the poor weather conditions over the last years and more Th colonies were lost compared to Tc.
Below: Dean giving some history of the local area…
Below: Enthusiastic attendees going off track in search of wild colonies and plenty were found…
Below: Tim Heard checking out a nest of Tree Brown Paper Wasps
Below: A great view from the lookout
Contacts:
- Australian Native Bee Association – https://www.anba.org.au
- Brisbane Branch Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/bnbeec
- Toohey Forest Park – https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/clean-and-green/natural-environment-and-water/bushland-reserves/toohey-forest-park
