Scientists recommend limits on urban beekeeping to protect Australia’s native bees from honeybees

Scientists have recommended limits on urban beekeeping after a peer-reviewed study found introduced honeybees could be harming Australian native bees and risked driving them to extinction. “By boosting honeybee numbers, you can be harming native bees,” said Prendergast, a native bee scientist and conservationist at the University of Southern Queensland. More than 1,700 species of native bees have been identified in Australia, and they play an important role in pollinating native trees and wildflowers. Photograph: Dr Kit PrendergastProtecting and increasing flowering trees like eucalyptus, myrtles and bottlebrushes and wildflowers could help support native bee populations, the authors said. Hogendoorn said about a third of Australia’s bee species were yet to be described.