Change of Guard

I divided a native bee hive into two hives on the weekend.

The stingless bees flying around my face can be distracting. So I wore a headnet. I had bought the net for outback travelling. But there was a problem - the net is impregnated with an insecticide which made the bees fly erratically and, I presume, die. I need a different net.

When I opened the hive I found that the hive of Tetragonula carbonaria bees had been replaced by Tetragonula hockingsi. The different species look identical to the naked eye. But carbonaria arrange their nests as a spiral and hockingsi nests are more higgledy piggledy. 

Another example of environmental change - hockingsi prefer higher temperatures and used to live to the North of Brisbane.

A photo from a few years ago showing a spiral Tetragonula carbonaria nest.