Tobias Smith

Tobias Smith
University of Queensland | UQ · School of Biological Sciences

BSc Hons; PhD

About

34
Publications
9,387
Reads
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388
Citations
Introduction
Background in community ecology of tropical and temperate bees, ecosystem restoration and crop pollination with Australian native bee species. Now focused on stingless bee biology and ecology, bee diversity and the creation of bee identification resources. Interested in all things bees, and in science communication. Personal business: BeeAwareKids.com.au
Education
December 2009 - January 2014
University of Queensland
Field of study
  • Insect Community Ecology
February 2007 - November 2007
University of Tasmania
Field of study
  • Plant Ecology
February 2003 - November 2005
University of Tasmania
Field of study
  • Plant Science and Zoology

Publications

Publications (34)
Article
Full-text available
We re‐examined reports of hybridisation in three cryptic stingless bee species in the genus Tetragonula in South East Queensland, Australia (T. carbonaria, T. davenporti and T. hockingsi). Previous studies on this group using microsatellite markers proposed that hybridisation occasionally takes place. In contrast, we find that using 1745 SNPs we co...
Article
Full-text available
Stingless bees are a widespread group of highly social bees found in tropical regions throughout much of the world. Despite an impressive diversity, relatively little is known about worker behaviour and division of labour. In this study, we investigate the progression of colony tasks over the lifespan of worker bees in colonies of the two most comm...
Article
Full-text available
Urbanisation drives overall declines in insect pollinators. Although urban green spaces can provide suitable habitat for pollinators much remains to be learned about how urban landscapes either promote or negatively impact pollinators. We investigated how backyard design, local (100 m) and landscape (500 m) scale vegetation cover and human populati...
Article
Full-text available
Two stingless bee species, Tetragonula carbonaria and Tetragonula hockingsi , engage in extreme inter-colony fights, both within and between species. Inter species fights can result in one species taking over the nest of the other. Following successful takeovers, brood from the previous colony could be retained and become workers, but this has yet...
Article
Full-text available
Trehalulose, a rare sucrose isomer, is a dominant sugar in stingless bee honey, with traces of the trisaccharide erlose. Incubating sucrose solutions with macerated stingless bee parts (head, thorax, and abdomen) from Tetragonula carbonaria, we observed that sucrose isomerization occurs predominantly in the head incubations, with trehalulose consti...
Article
Aim Humans influence species distributions by modifying the environment and by dispersing species beyond their natural ranges. Populations of species that have established in disjunct regions of the world may exhibit trait differentiation from native populations due to founder effects and adaptations to selection pressures in each distributional re...
Article
Full-text available
The beneficial disaccharide, trehalulose, is a feature of stingless bee honey, while not dominant in any other foods. By experimentally feeding sugar solutions to confined colonies of the Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria, the origin of trehalulose has now been established. Complete conversion of fed sucrose was observed, by analysis...
Article
Full-text available
Protective covers (i.e., glasshouses, netting enclosures, and polytunnels) are increasingly used in crop production to enhance crop quality, yield, and production efficiency. However, many protected crops require insect polli-nators to achieve optimal pollination and there is no consensus about how best to manage pollinators and crop pollination in...
Article
Full-text available
A book review for the Australian Native Bee Association's monthly publication - The Cross Pollinator - Book reviewed: Grüter, C (2020) Stingless Bees: Their Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution. Springer International Publishing (available at https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030600891) Australian Native Bee Association: https://australiannativebee....
Article
The decline of both managed and wild bee populations has been extensively reported for over a decade now, with growing concerns amongst the scientific community. Also, evidence is growing that both managed and feral honey bees may exacerbate threats to wild bees. In Australia, there are over 1600 native bee species and introduced European honey bee...
Article
Full-text available
(1) Background: Landscape simplification is a major threat to bee and wasp conservation in the tropics, but reliable, long-term population data are lacking. We investigated how community composition, diversity, and abundance of tropical solitary bees and wasps change with landscape simplification (plant diversity, plant richness, distance from fore...
Preprint
Full-text available
Discrepancies in mitochondrial and nuclear genetic data are often interpreted as evidence of hybridisation. We re-examined reports of hybridisation in three cryptic stingless bee species in the genus Tetragonula in South East Queensland, Australia (T. carbonaria, T. davenporti, and T. hockingsi). Previous studies on this group using microsatellites...
Article
Mating systems are poorly understood for the majority of the world’s estimated 600 stingless bee species (Meliponini). It is assumed that in most species, a virgin queen takes a single nuptial flight, mates with a single drone and returns to the nest, using the stored sperm from this one event for the remainder of her life. Multiple genetic studies...
Presentation
Mating systems in stingless bees (Meliponini) are poorly understood for the vast majority of the world’s estimated 600 species. It is generally assumed that in most species, a virgin queen leaves the nest on a single nuptial flight, mates with a single drone and returns to the nest and uses the stored sperm for the remainder of her life. A number o...
Presentation
Identifying native bees that have the ability to buzz pollinate is an important first step towards the commercialisation and widespread use of an environmentally-safe pollinator for Australian glasshouse crops such as tomato, capsicum and eggplant. There is great interest from the glasshouse industry in importing and managing exotic bumble bee spec...
Presentation
Full-text available
Several studies have highlighted the importance of natural habitat to support bees in disturbed landscapes such as agroecosystems. However, little is known about the specific habitat requirements of solitary bees in such landscapes. We aimed to identify the plant sources of nest materials and brood provisions for cavity-nesting solitary bees in nat...
Presentation
Australia has a growing community of native bee enthusiasts, numbering in their thousands. Enthusiasm in this community is high, and as such provides a potential reservoir of citizen scientists and future native bee professionals. Most native bee enthusiasts, however, have little or no training in bee identification and usually rely on direct assis...
Research
Video of Tetragonula carbonaira stingless bees at Currumbin Waters, Queensland, Australia, at 11:30am on the 16th of April 2019. The video shows a young queen being released from a collection container, in which she had been stored for approximately 15 minutes, and the subsequent reaction of nearby drones. 15 minutes prior to this video the queen w...
Article
Central to the success of restoration plantings within abandoned pastures is the appropriate selection of species that can establish and grow rapidly to form canopies to suppress grasses. However, species selection can be difficult, largely due to combinations of biotic and abiotic factors operating across multiple spatial scales that can affect se...
Article
Tropical forest loss and fragmentation can change bee community dynamics and potentially interrupt plant–pollinator relationships. While bee community responses to forest fragmentation have been investigated in a number of tropical regions, no studies have focused on this topic in Australia. In this study, we examine taxonomic and functional divers...
Book
Full-text available
Australia is home to about 1630 described bee species. Here I provide a simplified, user-friendly key to all of the Australian bee genera, in which all couplets are supported by photos and diagrams to support the descriptions. This book is designed to be as practical and easy as possible, while maintaining the integrity of this complex task. I beli...
Presentation
Full-text available
Trap nests or “bee hotels” have been used to manage solitary bees since the 1950s in agriculture, research and, more recently, for urban conservation. Various designs are available for different purposes and target species, however, site characteristics such as land use also need to be considered. In this study, we test the performance of a hybrid...
Article
The success of restoration projects is known to vary widely, with outcomes relating to numerous biotic and abiotic factors. Though many studies have examined the factors associated with long‐term restoration success, few have examined which factors impact the establishment of restoration plantings. In Australia's Wet Tropics, we used a large replic...
Article
Pollination is a critical ecosystem function with high ecological and economic value. Conservation initiatives aimed at protecting diverse pollinator communities in natural and agricultural habitats are essential, but the implementation and success of such initiatives often depends on public support. Mass media play an important role in building pu...

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