Gary Taylor has always felt most at home in the bush. Long before native bees became his focus, he was a child wandering through scrub and creek beds, watching everything that moved. His father shaped that way of seeing. He spoke about trees, spiders and insects as if they were old friends. Nothing was to be squashed or dismissed. Every creature simply wanted to get back to its companions. That quiet respect settled into Gary early and never left.
In a patch of bush he calls his bee paradise, Gary noticed a large male Stenotritus with a reddish tuft at the end of its abdomen. Australia’s Stenotritidae are found nowhere else in the world, and with only a small number of known species, the difference stood out. After sharing photographs with Dr Megan Halcroft, he was connected with entomologist Terry Houston. The following season, specimens were collected and subjected to months of detailed measurement and description. The result was confirmation of a new species: Stenotritus taylori. Having an Australian native bee named in his honour remains one of Gary’s proudest achievements.
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