After the Fires: Conserving Australia’s Green Carpenter Bee on Kangaroo Island

Wheen Bee Foundation is a proud supporter of the Green Carpenter Bee conservation project.  Initially started on Kangaroo Island, the focus of this project has recently expanded due to the impacts of the 2020 catastrophic bushfires. Join Dr Richard Glatz, Dr Remko Leijs and Dr Katja Hogendoorn discuss the Green Carpenter Bee, the program to date and the important next steps.

Speaker information:

Remko Leijs is honorary researcher at the South Australian Museum working mostly on the taxonomy of Australian native bees. He did his PhD on the evolution of World’s Carpenter bees. He has been studying the Green Carpenter Bee on Kangaroo Island since 1996, and since 2002 he has been  been investigating the occurrence of the bees in relation to habitat fragmentation and fire-management. The past 7 years he developed successfully artificial nest substrates that now play a crucial role in the conservation of the bees.

Katja Hogendoorn is a researcher of bees and crop pollination at the University of Adelaide. Mostly interested in evolution, she did her PhD in Israel on the social behaviour of a carpenter bee species, and has been in love with carpenter bees ever since. She moved to Australia in 1996. Since 2013, she has been actively pursuing the conservation of the green carpenter bee on Kangaroo Island, together with Richard and Remko.

Dr Glatz is an experienced field and research entomologist, and Chief Editor of the science journal Austral Entomology. He has led numerous national and state projects and established D’Estrees Entomology & Science Services on Kangaroo Island (KI) in 2013. Dr Glatz has broad entomological experience in molecular biology, conservation, taxonomy, water monitoring, biosecurity, integrated pest management and natural resource management. He has been involved in research on the endangered Green carpenter bee since 2012 and has conducted ecological research on KI for over 20 years. This produced a range of discoveries and associated publications, including the primitive moth family enigmatineidae (represented by the Enigma moth). Additionally, he has established, and curates, a KI insect reference collection of over 60,000 specimens, including many species or occurrence records new to KI.