Tiny, unassuming and strangely beguiling, Tasmania's native bees don't get as much notoriety as the Tassie devil or the swift parrot.
But they are incredibly important to the health of the state's forests and fields.
Australia is home to over 1,500 native bees, more than 100 of which call Tasmania home.
Some of them are tiny — only millimetres in length.
So what is the buzz with Tasmania's bees?
All the single ladies, all the single ladies
Like most of the world's bee species, female Tasmanian native bees live in tiny little tunnels that they find or make themselves.
According to entomologist and science communicator, Shasta Henry, females still lay eggs and collect pollen, but they do not return to a big colonial hive.
"They are all queens … solitary queens," Dr Henry said.
Most queens live solo in bachelorette pads, however semi-social reed bees share their digs.
"[Reed bees are] about five millimetres long and they've got a bright red abdomen and a very glossy black front," she said.
"They will pack multiple females in and will share resources.
"I've seen several tree ferns that are like a tower block of reed bees, all using multiple tunnels and really gathered together in quite a concentrated area."
Male bees share 'cuddle puddles'
While female native bees are living the solo high life snoozing in their bachelorette pads, male bees spend their nights out in the elements — and to survive, they snooze in cuddle puddles.
"Male bees gather together in little bundles, and they cuddle to insulate each other at night … it is fantastic," Dr Henry said.
Oh honey bee, she is not from here
Honey bees might be the most common bees you will find in your garden, but they are not native.
The imports from the northern hemisphere are prized in agriculture for their honey and their power as pollinators.
As bees move from flower to flower collecting pollen and nectar they spread pollen around, pollinating plants and allowing them to fruit.
"The reason that they're so useful is because they live in hives," Dr Henry said.
"That means that if you move the queen around you move this whole resource, it's like having a fleet of drones that provide this incredible pollination service."
But native bees are harder to direct.
"You can't control and manage a population of independent solitary queens," Dr Henry said.
Bumblebees are serious newcomers
The only place in Australia big fuzzy bumblebees buzz about is Tasmania — they are easily recognisable as they are the largest bees in the flower patch with big, round abdomens.
Despite being a common Tassie sight, bumblebees only showed up in the island state in 1992.
The species came from New Zealand, and many believe it was illegally smuggled into the state.
Bumblebees perform "buzz pollination" where they vibrate their wings in a specific way that induces very efficient pollination of certain crops such as tomatoes and eggplants.
"That is the reason why there's a whole lobby of people who want more bumblebees in Tasmania for tomato pollination," Dr Henry said.
But this is a contentious issue.
"They are also invasive, they outcompete our native bees," Dr Henry said.
Solar powered mega bees
Both honey and bumblebees are larger than Tassie's native bees and this and gives them and advantage over our tiny tackers.
Insects need to warm up before they can be active, as "all insects are solar powered," according to Dr Henry.
Being chunky gives honey and bumble bees a "thermal advantage," meaning they can get up and buzzing earlier in the morning than our native bees.
"They get first access to food resources and they even damage some of our native flowers so that the flowers won't fruit and nobody gets the nectar," Dr Henry said.
If a bumblebee cannot fit its head in a flower, it may opt to chew through the flower to access the nectar, meaning no pollination will occur.
When bees damage a flower like this it is called "nectar robbing".
"This whole gentleman's agreement system that flowers and pollinators have established over hundreds of thousands of years falls apart … very rude," Dr Henry said.
Team work makes dream work
In an orchard, the most efficient pollination occurs when honey bees and native bees work together … or at least in the same patch.
While it is harder to move around a disparate population of independent queens, many native bees are better pollinators than honey bees.
This is particularly true of resin bees, who lack the specialised "pollen baskets" that honey bees have on their legs to neatly pack and store pollen.
"They just gather pollen all over the bottom of their body," Dr Henry said.
"They are covered in hairs, so they just belly flop into a flower and get covered in pollen.
"That also means that they're not as effective at gathering pollen for themselves so, they have to fly to way more flowers.
"But honeybees don't like native bees.
"If they bump into one, they'll be like, 'eeew', and fly across the orchard to the next row of trees.
"So having a mixture of native bees in your orchard will actually make your honey bees work a bit harder and effectively and you get better fruit set."
Yeah … but do native bees sting?
Many native bees do sting, but the tiny insects are far less likely to sting than honeybees or European wasps.
"The reason that you're not likely to get stung by one is because they aren't as aggressive or defensive because they don't have a hive," Dr Henry said.
Bees with hives will "protect the homestead", whereas when bees are only looking out for their own welfare, they will not risk themselves unnecessarily.
Do native bees like 'bee hotels'?
"Most of our bees are not well-suited to those basic or traditional bee hotel resources," Dr Henry said.
This is because our bees are so petite that holes in commercial bee hotels are to roomy.
Dr Henry set up the Tasmanian Bee Hotel website to help people learn about attracting Tasmanian bees to their garden.
"Also to experiment for myself and to let other people experiment with attracting bees with resources that are better suited to them in our Tasmanian environment," she said.
Easy guests to cater for
The simplest thing you can do to attract native bees is to leave some old, untreated wood around, especially in a sunny spot.
You can make these bee bachelorette pads even more attractive by using a three-or-four-millimetre drill bit to drill some holes in them.
"Or hang up little bundles of long, narrow bamboo sticks or long narrow cuttings of black berry somewhere that's sunny," Dr Henry said.
"And maintain your flowerbeds with no pesticides so that your bees can come and forage and hopefully find your little bundles of bee resources. "
Do they need native flowers?
"No, the bees aren't fussy."
