Buzzed up on native bees

Dr Kit Prendergast has long been fascinated by the natural world. 

“I love discovering things,” says Kit. 

“I also love being able to find out how, through science, we can conserve the amazing biodiversity that’s evolved on this planet.”

This curiosity has now landed her as the 2026 Early Career Scientist of the Year for the WA Premier’s Science Awards.

Kit’s research largely focuses on the conservation of native bees around Perth’s urban spaces. But that wasn’t always the case.

MAKING A MUSE

“I didn’t know that native bees existed when I was a kid … it wasn’t until I was at uni that I first even learnt about them during a lecture on alternative mating strategies,” says Kit.

In some species of bee, the lecturer illuminated, the males use different mating strategies based on their body size.

It made Kit think, “Wow, that’s really interesting.”

Soon after, she went to a photographic display of native bees, which would render that remark wildly understated.

“I thought, ‘Aww, these are really cute!’,” says Kit.

“I didn’t know that there were all these diverse native bees literally all around Perth,” she says, “and none of them look like a honeybee.”

“From there, I became obsessed.”

MAKING A BEELINE

Upon completing her undergrad, Kit was drawn to postgraduate studies and she remembered those little native bees. She then went on to design a PhD project all about them.

“I wanted to know how we can conserve native bees in urban areas because it hadn’t been looked into that much,” says Kit.

Although Kit has just completed her first postdoctorate position researching the role of pollinators for canola, she still has plenty more she wants to find out.

“I am going to be a bee scientist until I die, it’s what I love.”

Five hours north of Perth, Kit and her colleague conducted the first survey of native bees and invertebrates in the region.

She’s also conducting surveys for the City of Perth and South West NRM to record the biodiversity in their green spaces.

All of this data contributes to one of Kit’s passion projects: an open-source database that helps people identify which plants are important for which pollinators and vice versa.

“I started this huge database of plants and pollinators when I was working with Greening Australia and [there are] 8,000 records there which are now being refined,” says Kit.

It will be the first database of its kind available in Australia.

YOU’D BETTER BEELIEVE IT

Kit has spent so long looking for native bees that she has even described two new species. The discoveries are among Kit’s many proud research moments.

Her first discovery was in 2022, an incredibly rare species called Leioproctus zephyr, named after her dog, Zephyr. It’s only found in seven locations around Perth (including King’s Park) and is internationally recognised as endangered.

“That was really special to me,” says Kit. 

“It’s so important to be able to document, monitor and assess the conservation status of species. If they aren’t described, you can’t do that.”

Her second bee discovery had local media buzzing, thanks to its demonic appearance. Megachile lucifer has distinctive, tiny devil-like ‘horns’.

And the origin of this species name? “I loved the Netflix show Lucifer,” laughs Kit.

A BUSY BEE

Winning the Premier’s Science Awards isn’t the first time that Kit has been in the spotlight. In fact, she’s used to it.

By day, ‘the Bee Babette’ is a science communicator, frequently travelling Western Australia to teach kids about native bee conservation through her book, Amy the Amegilla.

By night, she’s a performance artist blurring the lines of what it means to be a scientist.

Kit describes her adults-only Perth Fringe Festival show, The Birds and the Bees, as a circus/science comedy with a sexy take on pollination.

Her advice to the next generation of aspiring scientists is simple.

“Science is the best career to pursue because you’re always learning and discovering new things,” says Kit.

“You can really feel like you’re having an impact on the world.”