The green carpenter bee, Xylocopa aerata (Smith, 1851), has undergone a severe reduction in its distribution over the previous century, in part because of habitat loss and fragmentation and its dependency on old‐growth heathland habitats. In 2007, the last remaining South Australian population, on Kangaroo Island, was negatively affected by a shortage of nesting substrate as a consequence of a series of large, intense wildfires. In an attempt to prevent yet another extirpation of this species, we developed artificial nesting substrates (stalk nests and trunk nests) and placed them at various locations within the current range of the population. Monitoring showed that the bees readily used the alternative nesting substrate in sites where very little natural substrate was left. Reproductive activity was evaluated using X‐ray images of winter nests. Based on tunnel lengths and number of individuals, we conclude that conservation action has resulted in successful reproduction and that the number of nests used has increased each year. This is the first time that provision of nesting substrate is shown to substantially improve the breeding capacity of a threatened population of endemic bees in their natural habitat. However, reproduction in artificial substrate was significantly higher in 2016 than in 2017 and 2018. The most obvious reason for the decline in breeding was climatic – low spring and summer rain in the later years limited floral resources and hence reproduction. Global climate change is causing drier conditions and more frequent and intense fires, which are reducing the likelihood of survival of this species. This effect is demonstrated by the latest fire season which left only 5% of the bees' habitat intact on Kangaroo Island. Each large‐scale fire locally annihilates bees and destroys old growth nesting substrate which takes at least 35 years to recover, thus increasing the overall risk of extinction.

中文翻译：

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通过提供人工筑巢基质来保护绿色木匠蜜蜂Xylocopa aerata（膜翅目：Apidae）的保护管理

绿色木匠蜜蜂，Xylocopa aerata（Smith，1851年），在上个世纪中，其分布已大大减少，部分原因是栖息地的丧失和破碎化以及对旧大陆荒地栖息地的依赖性。2007年，南澳大利亚剩下的最后一个人口，即袋鼠岛，受到一系列大型强烈烈火的筑巢底物短缺的不利影响。为了防止再次灭绝该物种，我们开发了人工筑巢基质（茎巢和树干巢），并将其放置在当前种群范围内的各个位置。监测表明，蜜蜂很容易在很少残留天然底物的地方使用替代的筑巢底物。使用冬季巢穴的X射线图像评估生殖活动。根据隧道的长度和个体数量，我们得出结论，保护行动已成功繁殖，所使用的巢穴数量逐年增加。这是首次证明提供筑巢基质可大大提高受威胁的地方性蜜蜂在其自然栖息地中的繁殖能力。但是，2016年人工基质的繁殖显着高于2017年和2018年。繁殖下降的最明显原因是气候–后来的春季和夏季降雨少，限制了花卉资源，因此繁殖。全球气候变化正在导致更干旱的条件和更频繁，更猛烈的大火，这降低了该物种生存的可能性。最新的火灾季节证明了这种影响，该季节在袋鼠岛上仅保留了5％的蜜蜂栖息地。每次大火都会在本地歼灭蜜蜂并破坏旧的生长筑巢基质，这至少需要35年的时间才能恢复，从而增加了灭绝的总体风险。