Day: September 19, 2022

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.