Tetragonula Sapiens

Tetragonula Sapiens are a tropical bee that can be found in northern Queensland from Bowen to the tip of Australia. They can be viewed in some ways as a larger version of Tetragonula Clypearis. They are relatively fast builders.

Tetragonula Sapiens make their nest in areas that are dark or very shaded. The base of tree stumps, holes in eroded dirt walls and retaining walls. They like their nest to be kept cool.  They take care to defend their hives as ants can be a problem. Sapiens like a small entrance spout for defence .They are more accurate in landing directly into their entrance than other Tetragonula.

Once brood is established Tetragonula sapiens like to start the advancing front in a new area.  Their queens have a dark abdomen with orange hairs on the segments. Nurse bees and callows have an orange appearance when viewed in the hive. While older workers have visible orange/brown hairs around their thorax and even greenish eyes.

Tetragonula sapiens are a shy bee. They have very good vision and I have observed them toying with green tree ants.

Their workforce is small and a nest is easy to walk past without seeing a bee. Workers fly out only every now and then and hide when someone is near.

When a nest is moved of this species workers wont necessarily go straight to the brood. Instead they rely on their memory of what their entrance looked like to find their way. This should be considered by anyone attempting to place them in a man made hive.

Another interesting thing is Sapiens are also found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

I hope to do more research on this bee and make some more additions to this post.