Retorts

Busy Bees

I read with interest the article by Dr Dave Kelly on "Native Bees with New Tricks" [April, 1998]. This describes the very unusual and extraordinary behaviour of native bees prising open the unopened buds of the native red-flowered mistletoe Peraxilla tetrapetala. Dr Kelly goes on to mention some of the important implications of this activity in regard to the breeding system of the species, which is usually bird-pollinated.

I would like to draw attention to an earlier, and perhaps overlooked, record of native bees undertaking a similar activity on another New Zealand mistletoe. In February 1964, near Tongariro National Park headquarters, Dr Eric Godley observed native bees foraging over the outer surface of the flower buds of Elytranthe flavida. These bees also prised open the tip of the flower buds and then pushed down inside the long tube in search of nectar. These observations were presented in a review paper on flower biology in New Zealand, published in the New Zealand journal of botany in 1979 (Volume 17, p. 445).

Peter Heenan, Landcare Research