A area journey to Fiji has revealed 8 new Pacific bee species and new insights into fowl behaviour.
Two papers have been printed from the journey which spotlight the significance of Asia-Pacific analysis collaboration for species discovery, conservation and cultural engagement.
The new research, led by Flinders University scientists and supported by the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan Mobility Program, are printed in New Zealand Journal of Zoology and Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
For 10 years, Flinders University scientists have labored carefully with the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji to organise area journeys. The most recent journey explored Viti Levu Island.
“Our investigations have discovered an extra group of endemic bees in Fiji that have remained ‘hidden’ in the forest canopy despite years of looking and sampling,” says Australian native bee skilled Dr James Dorey, now a lecturer on the University of Wollongong. “Through our local collaborations, we also know that these bees are widespread in the Pacific.”
Dorey provides that their findings have solved the thriller of how these 3–5mm Hylaeus made it to French Polynesia, flying from archipelago to archipelago. The bees dispersed over time from their closest kin 4,000km north in Hawai‘i and 6,000km west in Australia.
Six of the species discovered on the island make up solely the second native genus in Fiji.
As the bee flies, one species was discovered 3,000km away in French Polynesia, and one other in Micronesia. This highlights the worth of forests to pollinators and the potential for a lot of extra species to be discovered throughout the Pacific.
“Unlike the super-generalist Homalictus bees that inhabit Fiji and likely benefitted from ancient human-clearing, the Fijian Hylaeus are likely very vulnerable to anthropogenic clearing and may be critical pollinators in forest habitats,” says Dr Dorey.
Flinders University and University of South Australia researchers additionally labored with USP scientists to seek out out extra about Fiji’s native forest birds.
They discovered native species – the silvereye, Fiji white-eye, Vanikoro flycatcher and the Slaty monarch – had been extra aggressive in defending their territories at larger elevations. It is feasible this is because of bugs they feed on being much less ample larger up, or that extra aggressive species are discovered at larger elevations.
The authors write that such interactions inside species “can be explored in relation to avian behaviour also in the context of human activity, human disturbance and threats to the persistence of birds across elevational gradients.”
