Month: September 2022

Categories
Eastern Australia fossils travel wildlife

From caves to the cloud forest

26 September. We wake up in our campsite in the Capricorn Caves. Outside, the brush turkey waits for us hoping for a food scrap. First thing in the morning we walk to the caves and on the way we found a Solanum vine that I last saw in Mexico. This is Solanum seaforthianum, a Brazilian vine that has found a way to travel the world on the wings of well intentioned gardeners that prize their beautiful lilac flowers, which appear in generous bunches as the plant climbs any available surface. It has somehow made it to eastern Australia and appears to be doing fine with plenty of fruits. This is the first time we see this invasive plant in this trip, but probably not the last. I cannot find any other previous records of this species in iNaturalist, the image-recognition app that has become our good companion for scouting potential sampling sites of buzz pollinated plants. No bees in this invasive vine though. Near the caves we study a colony of stingless bees that a local meliponiculturist (a bee farmer of stingless bees) has placed in the area. The tiny bees (probably Tetragonula sp.) are busy guarding the entrance to their wooden home.

The exploration of the caves is amazing, if too brief. These rare karstic caves are above ground, not below, as they gorge the mountain and they are effectively dry inside with only rainwater penetrating them in the rainy season. Inside, colonies of ghost bats and other bat species call in the dark chambers outside of the reach of tourist lights. The caves were discovered by Norwegian farmers in the late 1800s, and became the first touristic attraction of Queensland. They have also yielded some great fossils of marsupial lions and other fantastic beasts.

After leaving the Caves, we head up straight north. We want to reach beyond Mackay before the end of today. The goal is to spend the night in Eungella National Park, 380 km north from here. The drive is long but smooth. The vegetation changes little until the cane fields appear. Increasing in coverage as we move north, before we reach Mackay they have become monstrous. The last push west of Mackay to the mountains where the Eungella park is perched, is a continuous field of sugar cane and mills. A narrow train track will help moving tons of sugar cane during harvest time. The mill churns out sweet smoke from gigantic chimneys. Mechanised bands carry broken sugar cane across the road and above our heads.

As we reach the base of the Eungella mountains a dramatic and most incredible change takes place. The monocultures yield to a brutal explosion of plant diversity as the land becomes steeper and more inaccessible to farming. The hills are soon covered by dense, dark green vegetaion, eucalyptus and palms coexist, and when we reach the top, massive tree ferns appear. The montane tropical forest is loaded with vines and epiphytes and the amazing elk-ferns reach massive proportions growing in every tree. It is getting dark but we stop in the Sky View to admire the valley far below and to immerse ourselves in the montane tropical forest.

Now is dark and we decide we will not be able to reach the campsite near the Eungella dam. We pull over near a visitor centre and we find a room available for the night. Reluctantly, we move for a night to this cabin, but have dinner in the Buzz Bus anyway.

At night, I take my headlamp and walk to the Broken River, where we have been told the mysterious platypus can be seen. This is not the time of the day to find platypus, but I go there to check what other things I might be able to spot. A few minutes into my night walk, I hear noise in the bush. I slowly move the beam of my headlamp and see the strangest creature staring at me. The size of a racoon, grey short fur, a naked tail and a funny curved long snout. Some type of possum that shies away and disappears among the leaves. Then, in a grassy plain, a pair of bright eyes reflect the beam of my headlamp. A small wallaby assesses my every movement and when it decides I am too close, escapes with funny, substantial jumps and into the forest. I see another two of these small wallabies. When I reach the river, I see a golden male frog mating with a much larger dark green female. They are hypnotised by the light and the three of us stare at each other for a while. Later I return to the room and talk with Daniel about the amazing Australian fauna around us. Tomorrow we want to wake up early to look for a platypus before heading out to search for more bees.

Categories
bees Eastern Australia flowers wildlife

Mighty Melastomes

25 September. Today we wake up early and head north of Yeppoon to the edges of Byfield. This is an area with large plantations of non-native pine forest, and scattered native vegetation in some hard to reach spots. The pines pepper the landscape even in the areas that are now part of a state forest. In the outskirts we get a bit lost looking for a watering hole and end up in a small side road. On the edges of the dirt road we spot Grevillea banksii (Proteaceae), a shrub that produces the type of handsome red inflorescences that Australian birds love. But instead of pollinating birds we notice some small native bees stealing nectar. Our first native bees for a long while!

Measuring buzzes

Quickly, we get to work and manage to capture a few specimens, which I later determine to be the stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria (Apidae, Meliponini). These small bees resemble the stingless Trigona bees from the neotropics but have a rugged back (scutellum) that projects over the abdomen as if they were carrying a shield in their back. These bees refuse to produce defence buzzes and we record five individuals as non-buzzing. Although not unexpected, we are very happy to score this new species of a highly social, tropical bees as non-buzzing. 

We keep searching nearby, and discover some bright magenta flowers in a small bush. This is plant clearly belongs to the family Melastomataceae, a curious tropical family in which the majority of species are buzz pollinated, which appears to be a highly unusual trait for an entire family. We are very excited about the findings of what then we established to be Melastoma malabatrichum, a species that others have studied before in the old tropics but for which I am unaware of pollination studies in Australia. In any case, it is the first time I see this species in the wild. The flowers are large with spread out petals and five bright yellow anthers carrying pollen at the centre of the flower. The anthers are poricidal, opening through small pores at the tips, which makes buzzing the most effective way to remove pollen from them. As they are nectar less, pollen is the only reward that this plant offers to visiting bees. But M. malabatrichum has a trick under its sleeve, because in addition of the five yellow anthers, each flowers carries a second set of purple anthers that mimic the colour of the petals. These inconspicuous anthers sneak behind the back of unsuspecting pollinators, which mostly ignore them while visiting the yellow anthers, and manage to put extra pollen in their back. The purple pollinating anthers are known as pollinating anthers, and the yellow as feeding ones. This is a classic example of heteranthery as studied by Charles Darwin and Fritz Muller in the middle of the XIX century.

Watching these mighty Melastomes, we see a large green bee zooming by, and in the excitement of seeing a buzz pollinator for the very first time in eastern Australia, I miss and let it escape! Bummer! We find more plants and wait patiently for it to come back. The mythical green bee never returns but instead we witness to black stripy buzz pollinators arrive to the melastome and we manage to catch them both. Hooray!

We go back to the Buzz Bus and record their buzzes. As the data is acquired by the computer we breath a sigh of relief of having the first buzzes of this trip.

We go back to the field and wait for a while but no new buzz pollinators arrive. We spend the rest of the day exploring this and other parts of the region, but no more pollinators arrive. As the afternoon sets in, we pull over in a sign that says Capricorn Caves. The place is closing, but after some pledging they let us stay in their campsite that is under renovation. The nearby caves can be visited next day, and with the last rays of light of the day we walk in the beautiful forest that surrounds us. 

Somehow we have found this little paradise of sharp karst in which caves occur above ground in small hills with ragged peaks. And below, we find a few well preserved fragments of dry tropical rainforest or vine scrub, where dense vegetation of broad leaves co-occur with woody vines that climb and twist among the trees. We see a few honeybees, wasps, beetles, spiders, but not native bees. As we walk a wallaby crosses my path and gets lost in the vegetation. I hear noises on my left and wait quietly to see a second wallaby come very close to me just to notice me and jump away in the forest. 

Ahead in the path, Daniel is admiring some green ants, a type of ants that use silk to tie tree leaves together and build aerial nests. The hanging nests are sensitive to vibrations and touching the branches cause a horde of green ants come looking for the trouble maker. It is best to keep your distance from their armies. Daniel tells me that aborigines used to eat the ants which have a citrusy flavour, and to prove his point he tries one. Apparently they’re indeed lemon like.

In the camp, a brush turkey (Alectura lathami) has adopted us and she waits for our arrival to see if she can find any scrap of food near the Buzz Bus. She is disappointed. 

That night I photograph bees for measurement and make some notes of what we have seen over the last days. We go to bed late and tired but hoping that the next day brings more bees. Above in the sky, we see Scorpio, the Southern Cross and a bright Jupiter. The flashes of the camera go on for a while.

Categories
Eastern Australia travel

Yeppoon and the Capricorn Coast 

24 September. We decide that we need to push further north to try to avoid the high density of people here and give us a better chance to find a bee-rich region. So, today is a driving day. Along the way, we spot an Emu keeping its distance from the road. A few other, less cautious animals are now feeding the many raptors that feast on the roadkill: kangaroos, wallabys, equidnas, snakes, birds… Roads impose a high toll on local wildlife. The landscape is very nice, sometimes flat expanses with pastures (cows seem to be revered in some towns that erect endless statues of bulls and cows), others forests of tall Eucalyptus, and still other times hills with steep sides and thick forest cover. As we continue travelling north, some white cockatoos appear near Rockhampton, and a kokaburra watches pensively from a power line.

We have crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and are now officially in the Australian tropics.

In the afternoon, we reach the town of Yeppoon, and look for a place in the outskirts of another very touristic town. We stay at a busy beach caravan park. The beach is endlessly long, with dark yellow sand. We find a few flowers in the sand dunes, but is perhaps too late for bees. In the evening we eat some delicious rice and veggies that Daniel prepares and make plans for the next day. We hope to stay local tomorrow and spend the day walking in the search for bees.

Daniel gives his best impression of a buzz pollinating bee after a long day of driving.
Categories
Eastern Australia wildlife

The East and my first Koala

22 September. Today I dropped off the Buzz Bus at Perth Airport and flew to Brisbane. A long five hour flight across the continent, and landing in Brisbane in the late evening after two hour time zone shift. A distance of about 3,600km. Here, I met Daniel and we stay at a hotel nearby making plans for our departure next morning.

23 September. Early in the morning we pick up the eastern Buzz Bus, and head to the supermarket to get supplies. After a long morning, we finally set out to start our eastern transect. We drive north out of Brisbane, and hit the first traffic bottleneck after a coupe, of kilometres. The traffic is heavy and we move slow. The Buzz Bus seems to be a rare sighting among the trucks and smaller cars of the commuters. The drive out of the city drags on, and we seem to struggle to leave behind the urban sprawl. The first stop is to check out Glasshouse Mountain, an old volcanic plug that raises steeply from the nearby plain. We go up Wild Horse mountain to get a better view and on the way we spot a giant Monitor Lizard. The beautiful monster guards us with one eye and then moves to a crevice in an old Eucalyptus trunk. The views from the forest fire observation point are great and we spot several flowers and some honeybees.

We keep driving through the heavy traffic and what seems to be never ending urbanity. We reach Noosa Head later in the afternoon, and the tows is a busy place in which cars go bumper to bumper. The are so many tourists and cars that we need to park on a rugby field. We walk to the mass of tourists and get info on hikes from a friendly volunteer at an information centre. The beach is teeming with tourists and surfers. We manage to walk up a nice path bordering the coast. This is a paradise for surfers and Pandanus trees! Pandanus tectorius, also known as thatched screw pine, is a palm-looking plant that produces large supporting roots that can sprout from high up the trunk. The new support roots can give it an appearance of legs, and some people call it the walking palm. I really like this plant, which I had only seen in the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens on gloomy, grey days. Here the Pandanus tree is in its element growing abundantly along the rocky cliffs and in the understory of this subtropical forest. I take plenty of photos. 

But the big surprise is waiting ahead. The dense mass of tourists serves finally a good purposes and somebody has spotted a koala somewhere in the trail. We speed up and find some people squinting at the branches high above. Very hard to spot without binoculars, but I finally notice a ball of fur barely moving above. A koala in the wild! The koala appears quite large, and although mostly we can only see its backside, now and then it stretches for an Eucalyptus leaf and I can distinguish its face and ear. It is very exciting!

The daylight is coming to an end so we have to leave and head to Pomona where we are staying for the night. We arrive in the dark, and the caretaker grumpily welcomes us. We start talking and I tell him about the many years I lived in Scotland. This perks him up and he tells me with pride that he was born in Ireland and that he has been back many times after migrating to Australia when he was three months old.

— People think that this area is very green—, he says referring to the wetter vegetation found here compared to other parts of inland Australia, his long side-chops running wildly to his mouth,— but it will never bee as green as the hills of Ireland and Scotland!

Categories
flowers Western Australia

Floral Riches of Western Australia

21 September. Last night we stayed in a caravan park in Greenhough. The friendly staff treated us to a story of walking the Way of Santiago, a trail that extends 700km in a journey to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The rusty showers and swallows nesting in the entrance to the laundry room adds character to a place that seems to exist in the strange dimension of roadsides. Unsurprisingly, we chat about David Lynch over breakfast.

In the morning, we continue driving south,  and we start the day with procession of 1960’s race cars that pass us in the opposite direction. We try to stop more rarely, but patches of Solanum distract us. We reach then Badgingarra National Park and quickly becomes the highlight of the day. A lunch break under a willow look-alike tree that is more closely related to guavas and Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae) than to willows (Salicaceae). Then a quick walk (no wild bees in sight), and the flower fest continues. Too numerous to name them now, we continue recording and photographing flowers. David spots a striking buzz-pollinated flower in the family Malvaceae (think hibiscus, mallow flowers but then transform them into some sort of tomato flower mimic). We photograph it and continue talking about follow up projects.

Late that evening we reach Perth and pack and clean the Buzz Bus. David and I say good bye after I drop him off at his family home. It has been a fantastic trip and we make plans for the analysis and write up of the data we are collecting. It has been great to have David’s expertise and knowledge of the flora of Western Australia and I have learned lots from him over the last eight days on the road.

Tonight I will stay in a hotel near the airport. Tomorrow I fly to Brisbane to meet Daniel Montesinos and start the second leg of the expedition.

Categories
flowers Western Australia

Wrapping up the West

20 September. Today we start driving South. First, we use ghe morning to return to Kalberri and visit the canyon again. The sky is bright blue, is less windy and the temperature around 20C, so we are hopefull to find bees. Along the walk we spot a small flowered Solanum, again with purple flowers. The combination of purple to lilac corollas and bright yellow anther cones seems to be widespread across buzz pollinated taxa here with the exceptions of all species in the families Fabacaeae and The Dilleniaceae (Hibbertia) that we have seen so far. we come to the rim of the canyon and its candy-coloured red and white banded sedimentary rocks.

Later we continue the drive back and spot many amzing plnts long the rod, including second Solanum with the same colour pattern.

We are targeting large patches of buzz pollinated bushes. The bees seem to be absent again today. A couple of honeybees visit them disinterestedly, gathering pollen in silence. these flowers offer no nectar, and it appears that a buzzing bee should be able to buzz large amounts of pollen from them. Yet honeybees, for reasons that remain unclear, are unable to buzz for pollen. The mute bees fly around looking for pollen grains. Why don’t they buzz? And where are all the native bees?

The frustration of driving hundreds of kilometres without being able to catch ny buzz pollinating bees is offset by the botanical treasure we see at every stop. Rare and fantastic flowers pop out from seemingly everywhere and every stop on the side of the road means finding 10-15 obviously new species for us. Banksias, Hakeas, Eucalyptus, Seringias, Cat’s paws, Kangaroo paws, daisies of all shapes, pea-flowered Fabaceae, yellow wattles…. the list goes on and on. Is this the most botanically diverse road trip in the World? How can all these species coexist in this mosaic of soil types? Floral displays carpet the vegetation and extend as far as you can see, with only agricultural fields bringing them to an end. We are in an amazing place at an amazing time of the year where plants of all kinds are pouring all their resources into producing millions of flowers. Bees and birds should be all over these plants, yet they re turning hard to spot. Is there a puzzle to solve with these missing pollinators or are we just unlucky?

The dearth of bees and the contrasting diversity of floral resources gives David and I plenty of material to speculate and develop projects and ideas. We might be leaving Western Australia with fewer bees than we anticipated, but we have ideas and inspiration to fuel us for a while. I have the feeling that I will be back in Western Australia sometime soon to study some of this buzz pollination systems.

Categories
back story

Buzz Bus promotion

A few months back we designed a logo for the expedition and printed some stickers, pin badges, and T-shirts for the team and to give away for promotion. The logo was made by the talented Debbie Mazels and depicts a blue banded Amegilla bee, on a buzz-pollinated flower of Halgania (Boraginaceae).

Unfortunately, the T-shirts are still stuck in storage in Scotland due to unexpected moving delays to Sweden. But Gillian has managed to rescue one, and has become the sole owner of an immediately rare piece of memorabilia!

Categories
Western Australia

Kalbarri

19 September. This morning we have breakfast at the Dome, in Geraldton, and the coffee and cake taste delicious. Then is back on the road. We are headed to Kalbarri National Park, looking for more bees and buzz pollinated flowers. We pass the sleepy town of Northampton, and enter the vast expanse of Kalbarri. The straight road cuts through some beautiful areas if wild bush, and the floral wonders continue appearing right and left. The morning is stormy and very windy, and there are no bees flying about. Even the pesky flies, that bane that is not mentioned to tourists but is well known to locals, are unable to take off on the windy conditions and leave us alone for a while.

On the road, an unlucky emu, a large flightless bird almost as big as an ostrich, crosses in front of a caravan coming on the opposite direction and sadly doesn’t make it. We stop but there is nothing to do with the poor animal. we note the mileage and will report it at the rangers station at the entrance of the park. the drive has taken a few hours, and the stops to check for bees means that we arrive at the park gates late in the afternoon. David and I decide to go for a short walk to the Sky Walk and Z bend.

The Sky Walk is a metallic structure that hangs high above the gorge that cuts deep into the meandering Murchison river valley. We enjoy beautiful views of the river and valley below, and we look for rock wallabies and red kangaroos, but without luck. we then drive to the Z bend and take a walk on the moist environment that exists among the cracks and crevices of the red rock as we descend towards the river. a few honeybees buzz around, but no native bees. Rain and sun mix as we walk down to reach the Murchison river among spectacular views of the red rock walls. Tortuous Eucalyptus sprung from crevices and thick, fat trunks at their base store resources that allow them to resprout and regenerate after fire. The path is relatively quiet and we are the last hikers to leave the Z bend walk in the dying afternoon. The right angles path that the river follows here is caused by deep cracks on the mother rock that have been carved for ages. When we walk up we see the fossil tracks of eurypterids, sea scorpions that hunted the waters and begun taking their first steps on dry land 400 million years ago, and find a very interesting species of heterantherous and enantiostylous Senna that appears common at the top of the valley. But no bees or rock wallabies here either.

We leave the park and go to Kalbarri town where we stay at the Caravan Park and eat fish tacos.

This night we stay up until late processing bee samples collected in the previous days. We photograph each specimen for later measurements and identification. The flash of the camera inside the caravan past midnight must be strange for other campers. We have found some amazing bees and the macro photos barely do justice to these beautiful buzzing bees. Tomorrow we will continue exploring the Kalbarri bush, hoping to find more bees.

Categories
bees flowers Western Australia wildlife

The Wreath Flowers of Wongoondy

18 September. We get a reliable tip off that the amazing ref flowers are nearby. We pick up camp and hit the road, until we see the old wind turbine of an abandoned water pump. On the side of the road, we spot the strange and beautiful wreath flowers (Lechenaultia macrantha). This unusual plant forma a low mat that produces a ring of flowers at its edge. But the botanical highlight is hidden in plain sight just besides the reeflowers. A small bush ripe with hundreds of purple flower buds lines the edge of the road a few meters from where we are. this interesting plant slowly opens its buds as the morning warms up and reveals another buzz pollinated wonder! the flowers of Seringia (Malvaceae), mimic Solanum flowers with its bright yellow stamen cone at the centre (more on the amazing morphology of Seringia later). The resemblance seems to work well, and we soon find plenty of bees visiting this plant.

Nearby, a pink Maleleuca is a magnet of small and large bees, and here we find an astounding Australian bee. The full ID will need to wait for the experts, but it appears that we have found Ctenocolletes aff. rufescens in the unusual family Stenotritidae. If confirmed, this is one of the most exciting findings of the trip so far. The family Stenotitridae is the smallest of all bee families, with about 21 species restricted to Australia, mostly in the west (Danforth et al. 2019. The Solitary Bees). A mysterious bee group sister to the most abundant bee family in Australia (Colletidae). I cannot wait to see the evaluation of the taxonomic experts, and start analysing the buzzes of this fantastic bee group!

Superficially similar to my favourite Australian bee, the blue banded bee, this gorgeous Ctenocolletes rufescens cannot restist the nectar and pollen of the Maleleuca brush flower. We manage to collect an measure this and other bees of all different kinds and sizes. Today has also been an excllent day for data colection. we spend the day here and later begin travelling north to our next destination.

A gorgeous bee, perhaps Ctenocolletes rufescens (Stenotritidae).

As we approach some low hills, David spots on the road a Western blue-tongue lizard. We stop to take a photo, and the monster warns us off from getting close by rapidly sticking out its blue tongue. we leave it looking grumpy on the side of the road.

As the day wears off, we decide to call in Geralton for the evening. After a few days on the road it will be nice to have hot shower and resupply on water and food.

Categories
bees flowers Western Australia

Coalseam and the bronze bee

17 September. Last night we arrived late to the Coalseam campground and as we set up for the night, a pair of reddish eyes looked back from the bush. A small kangaroo laid still in the branches just off the path. The night sky cleared out and treated us to some stunning views of the milky way.

Today we wake up to a cool but sunny morning. We are on the bowl of a small valley of Australian bush surrounded by agricultural fields that hide beyond the edge of the valley. A thing line of coal cuts through the river bed at the bottom of the valley. Too thin to be commercially viable, a small pile of mine tailings and a closed down shaft is all that remains of the old mine. Before we start our drive, we decide to explore the trail up the valley rim, almost just for fun. and then, just across the river we strike gold.

Scattered not far from the trail’s edge, bushes full of golden flowers hold a surprise for us. The buzz-pollinated flowers of Senna artemisioides, in the pea plant Fabaceae, are at their peak. This is an amazing flower that has the typical poricidal anthers, the tube-like anthers that closely guard pollen grains. But within each flower there are two types of anthers in this species, a short set that attracts and feeds pollinators, and a second set of longer anthers that sneak underneath or besides the pollinator and showers them with pollen to fertilise flowers. These so called heterantherous flowers, have evolved many times in disparate groups.

The flowers of S. artemisioides (silver Senna) are thus buzz pollinated and heterantherous, and we soon start hearing the high-pitched sounds of buzz pollinating bees. We set in catching bees to measure in the Buzz Bus, and soon David and I have collected enough to keep us busy for a few hours. We do a couple more trips of collecting and measuring bees. there are many beautiful black bees with blue abdomens and they obligue and give away their defense buzzes. The data flows in through the accelerometer, and we get many minutes of bee buzzes for our library. As we continue exploring and measuring, we notice that there are at least three species or subspecies of Senna that differ in flower size, level of heteranthery and leaf size and shape. The bee highlight, though, is a large and beautiful bee wish a bronze thorax and black abdomen. Measuring this one requires extra care and wearing some cow hide gloves to avoid its sharp stinger. a true buzz pollinating champion.

After the best day so far for data collection, we round it up with views of the coalseam river, a small flock of green budgies, galahs, and a very large black cockatoo. We run into some friends of David, and we tell them about the Buzz project, eat together and sit around the fire eating marshmallows that they kindly share with us. We stayed in the communal fire for a while, watching the southern cross in the sky, Alfa Centauri, Jupiter, Scorpion, and hearing stories from the old timers that relish telling about naive explorers that have found that travelling in the Australian outback is more challenging than expected.

— They didn’t think their truck will get stuck in the sand— says Tony, as he recalls when they had to bail a pair of city dwellers in a two-wheel drive from an off road track—well, you are stuck now!

We decide to stay another night in this lucky place.