World Bee Day 2025
Male Lipotriches Bees roosting at night - Western Australia
In December 2017 the United Nations designated May 20th as World Bee Day, with it first being celebrated the following May 2018.
The day is in recognition of the importance of bees (and other pollinators), the threats they face, the role they play in natural sustainability, and aims to raise awareness of the urgency in protecting them, and ways in which we can do that.
Bees are one of my favourite insects and one of my favourite things to photograph. I had no idea however, until I started macro photography, of just the range of bees of all shapes and sizes that we have here in Australia and elsewhere. Bees were either honey or bumble shaped to me, having been raised in the UK. I had no idea about the tiny, tiny ones, the stingless ones, the ones that roost together at night, the ones that are vividly coloured, and the ones that lay their eggs in other bee’s nests.
But they all exist - Australia has over 2,000 species of native bee ranging from 2mm to 24mm in length. Most are solitary, building their nests in burrows, whilst some species are social, forming a hive with a queen, worker and drone bees.
Male Blue-Banded Bees (Amegilla species) roosting at night in Western Australia. Whilst these are a solitary bee, they can often be found roosting in groups, and the females will make their nests near to other bees also.
The majority of native bees in Australia do not produce honey, but instead collect small amounts of nectar to feed their young. And some bees don’t bother to feed their young at all - they let others do it for them. The cuckoo bees, just like the cuckoo birds, lay their eggs in other species nests, their eggs hatch first, and eat the food the host bee is attempting to provide for their own offspring.
A species of ‘cuckoo bee’ (Waroon Cloak-and-dagger Bee Thyreus waroonensis - I think) holding itself steady with its mandibles whilst it sorts the pollen it is covered in.
Some bees don’t sting at all, whilst those that do will only do so under duress.
Whatever their size, shape, colour or habits, they are all incredibly important. They are one of our master pollinators. To quote the United Nations “Pollination is ……… a fundamental process for the survival of our ecosystems. Nearly 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend, entirely, or at least in part, on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. Not only do pollinators contribute directly to food security, but they are key to conserving biodiversity”
And yet, they are increasingly under threat from human activities resulting in habitat loss, intensive farming practices, pollution, spread of disease and introduced pests.
Small Megachile species of bee roosting at night - Western Australia
We can all help though. Whilst the governments of the world need to look at protective measures and sustainable agriculture practices globally, there are things we can do at home to help our local native bees, such as: plant pollinator friendly plants (especially native ones), avoid or at the very least minimise the use of chemicals and pesticides, set up bee ‘hotels’ (but please research carefully if you buy ready made), and generally make ourselves aware of both the importance of and our dependence on our tiny pollinators.
This might be a good place to start this World Bee Day: https://www.un.org/en/observances/bee-day