Bee variety measuring system on Republic of Fiji New species delineated as atmosphere changes. The variety buzz is alive and well in the Republic of Fiji, but climate change, noxious weeds, and multiple human activities are making possible extinction a counter buzzword.
Just as Australian researchers are finding colorful new bee species, some of them are already showing signs of exposure to environmental changes.
Flinders University Ph.D. candidate James Dorey whose macrophotography has captured some of Fiji’s newest bee species says the naming of nine new species gives researchers an opportunity to highlight the risks.
“Homalictus terminals is named so to indicate that, like many Fijian bees, it is nearing its limit and is at risk of climate-related extinction,” he says.
“Found solely on Mount Batilamu close to the town of Nadi, where many tourists launch their holidays, H. terminalis has solely been found among ninety-five meters of the peak.”
South Australian university students on the Australian Government’s New national capital overseas study program have gone to the Republic of Fiji within the south-west Pacific for many years.
The spectacular black Homalictus achrostus, featuring unusual large mandibles, is one of the most interesting endemic bee species on Fiji. But, like many Fijian bee species, H. achrostus has solely ever found on one mountain high.
“Six people were collected on Mount Nadarivatu within the Seventies and 2 in 2010, however despite frequent looking out, almost every year since no more have been found,” says Flinders University Associate Professor electro-acoustic transducer Schwarz, an author on the paper. “A possible driver of this doable extinction is dynamic climates,” prof Schwarz says.
“The cooler climate of the Fijian highlands can be slowly pushed upwards and off the highest of the mountains conveyance with it the species that need this climatical refuge.
“With H. achrostus one of the four previously described species of endemic bee in Fiji, this raises real concerns about the extinction of many highland species in Fiji and across all of the tropics.”
“These field visits have allowed the US to redescribe four well-known species and describe 9 new ones, bringing the number of endemic Homalictus in Fiji to 13 species,” says Dr. Stevens, who is collaborating on the study.
One of the new species, the eye-catching Homalictus grooming, was named in honor of Flinders biological sciences graduate Dr. Scott Groom, who began uncovering this hidden diversity using molecular techniques with Flinders University and the South Australian Museum in 2009.
Previous New national capital arranges biological sciences field visits have additionally studied the results of corrupting weeds and human activities on different animals and plants in the Republic of Fiji.
