X-rays Prove Stingless Bees Good for Greenhouse

SYDNEY - An Australian researcher has used X-ray technology to make a point about the worth of Australian native stingless bees.

Using bees to pollinate crops inside a greenhouse is the way of the future, according to University of Western Sydney researcher Mark Greco.

And he says native stingless bee have the perfect biology to carry out the task.

Horticulturists have applied to the federal government to allow the live importation of European bumble bees into mainland Australia for greenhouse crop pollination.

But Mr Greco says his research shows Australian stingless bees are better suited for the task and they could soon have a leading part in pollination programs around the world. "European honey bees suffer during periods of confinement within greenhouses, so our native stingless bees may offer a better alternative for pollination," Mr Greco said.

"They are conducive to the greenhouse environment, their biology suits it, they don't provide a risk to humans and they're certainly an economical alternative."

Mr Greco used his 25 years' experience as a diagnostic radiographer to apply X-ray computerised tomography (CT) to the study of the stingless bees.

"I thought hive health would be a useful indicator to determine whether native bees could be used in long term greenhouse pollination programs, so I wanted to find ways to study the brood chamber without damaging the nest," Mr Greco said.

The queen lays all her eggs in the brood chamber and the volume is an indicator of colony health. But the brood volume was difficult to measure manually due to a hive's multi-layered structure.

"It seemed a logical step for me to scan the bees since I have been operating CT scanners for many years," Mr Greco said.

"The scans have revealed quite stunning, never-before-seen, 3D images inside the beehive."

Mr Greco has just published his research in the prestigious UK Journal of Apicultural Research, detailing the new X-ray CT technique.

In his study, Mr Greco used three environmentally-controlled greenhouses containing capsicum plants and stingless bees. The capsicum experiment showed pollination by native bees increased crop yield by 10 to 18 per cent and the plants also had better shaped fruit.

European bumblebees were accidentally introduced to Tasmania in 1992 and have since spread throughout most of the island. If introduced to the mainland, European bumblebees could cause severe problems in our bushland, farms and urban gardens, Mr Greco said.