Bees for Development Journal 128 September 2018
BOOKSHELF Directory of important world honey sources
Eva Crane, Penelope Walker and Rosemary Day 2018 reprint 384 pages softcover This book contains a vast quantity of precious data about plants and bees and it is marvellous to see it in print once again. Best of all would be if people selecting trees become aware of this useful information and consult it to inform their choice: nowadays we need whenever possible to choose species and cultivars with value to bees and other insect pollinators. The meticulous work of gathering data and compiling it into this useful book was a labour of love for Eva Crane and her team. It was the outcome of many years’ scrutiny of the world’s research literature - across many languages, and carefully recording any data pertaining to plants visited by honey bees. By the 1980’s Eva Crane and her team had considerable data on thousands of plant species, each of them reported somewhere in the world to be major sources of honey. They then began the task of selecting from this lengthy list, those 467-plant species which could make it to the short list and be justifiably described as the ‘Important world honey sources’ of the book’s title. For each plant species, data is provided on its economic and other uses, how much nectar/pollen and/or honeydew it provides, honey flow data (if any exist), and concerning the honey’s chemical and physical properties. Much of the research that is cited here is from meticulous 20th century field work, watching bees and recording their behaviour - long before the digital era – and of course the observations remain valid. The entries may look at first impenetrable – but persevere to learn the codes and once you begin using this book, you will become addicted to consulting it and the interesting body of work upon which it is built.
A guide to native bees of Australia
Terry Houston 2018 272 pages softcover This lovely new book will surely stimulate more interest in Australia’s great diversity of bee species. It represents Terry Houston’s work for over 50 years bringing together his wealth of knowledge and amazing photographs to describe the bees, their life cycle, nest architecture, and relationships with plants and other bees. Australia has around 2,000 species of native bees occupying a wide diversity of habits, with the majority being solitary bees. Some species use wax for nest building, others work with silk or plant material, or burrow in soil or use holes in wood, or even in gum-nuts, the hard, woody fruit of the Eucalyptus tree. The first part of this excellent guide is a general introduction to the morphology, evolution, behaviour and ecology. The second part will enable users to identify bees, at least as far as allocating them to their genus. A beautiful new guide.
Buzz – the nature and necessity of bees
Thor Hansen 2018 283 pages softcover Thor Hanson is one of the new generation of excellent nature writers, and here he turns his focus to bees, clearly explaining by means of engaging narrative, that bees are important in many more ways than people might imagine. Readers of this Journal may be most particularly interested in his learning about the Hadza people in Tanzania and the significance of the vast amounts of honey within their diet, though elsewhere in the book he describes bees’ contribution to the creation that is a Big Mac sandwich. This highly readable book delivers much learning about the natural history of bees, well-considered and scientific. An excellent new contribution to the growing number of books providing fresh perspective around bees and the crucial roles they fill.
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