Project description:BackgroundOver three years (2013-2015), we sampled bees using nets and bowl traps on four diversified vegetable farms in Gallatin County, Montana, USA, as part of a study evaluating the use of wildflower strips for supporting wild bees and crop pollination services on farmlands (Delphia et al. In prep). We document 202 species and morphospecies from 32 genera within five families, of which 25 species represent the first published state records for Montana. This study increases our overall understanding of the distribution of wild bee species associated with agroecosystems of the northern US Rockies, which is important for efforts aimed at conserving bee biodiversity and supporting sustainable crop pollination systems on farmlands.New informationWe provide a species list of wild bees associated with diversified farmlands in Montana and increase the number of published bee species records in the state from 374 to at least 399. The list includes new distributional records for 25 wild bee species, including two species that represent considerable expansions of their known ranges, Lasioglossum (Dialictus) clematisellum (Cockerell 1904) with previously published records from New Mexico, Arizona, California and Utah and Melissodes (Eumelissodes) niveus Robertson 1895 which was reported to range from New York to Minnesota and Kansas, south to North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.
Project description:BackgroundHere we present the results from a two-year bee survey conducted on 18 managed emergent wetlands in the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley of Arkansas, USA. Sample methods included pan traps, sweep netting and blue-vane traps. We document 83 bee species and morphospecies in 5 families and 31 genera, of which 37 species represent first published state records for Arkansas. The majority of species were opportunistic wetland species; only a small number were wetland-dependent species or species largely restricted to alluvial plains.New informationWe present new distributional records for bee species not previously recorded in managed emergent wetlands and report specimens of thirty-seven species for which no published Arkansas records exist, expanding the known ranges of Ceratina cockerelli, Diadasia enavata, Lasioglossum creberrimum, Svastra cressonii and Dieunomia triangulifera. We also distinguish opportunistic wetland bee species from wetland-dependent and alluvial plain-restricted species.
Project description:Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean, constitutes a biodiversity hotspot with high rates of plant endemism. The wild bees of the island were studied extensively by the native George Mavromoustakis, a world-renowned bee taxonomist, who collected extensively on the island from 1916 to 1957 and summarised his results in a series of eight Cyprus-specific papers published from 1949 ["1948"] to 1957. The current work represents the first modern checklist of the wild bees of Cyprus, based on a compilation of previous publications, museum specimens and authors' recent collections. Overall, 369 verified wild bee species have been recorded on the island, with eleven species reported from Cyprus for the first time. The island hosts all six of the globally widespread bee families, with Apidae represented by 110 species, Megachilidae with 91, Andrenidae with 76, Halictidae with 72, Colletidae with 19, and Melittidae with 1. Twenty-one of the recorded bee species are endemic (i.e., 5.7 % endemism rate) and Cyprus ranks third after Lesvos and Sicily in known bee species richness among the Mediterranean islands. Previously unpublished records from various locations on Cyprus for 156 previously reported bee species are also provided in the study. The current work provides a baseline for future studies of wild bee diversity on the island of Cyprus and neighbouring regions.
Project description:BackgroundThe native bee fauna of Mississippi, USA has been historically poorly sampled, but is of particular relevance to determine range limits for species that occur in the southern United States. Currently published literature includes 184 species of bees that occur within the state of Mississippi. Additions to the list of native bees known for Mississippi are reported with notes on range, ecology and resources for identification.New informationThe geographic ranges of seven additional species are extended into the state of Mississippi: Andrena (Melandrena) obscuripennis Smith, 1853, Anthemurgus passiflorae Robertson, 1902, Dieunomia bolliana (Cockerell 1910), Diadasia (Diadasia) enavata (Cresson 1872), Peponapis crassidentata (Cockerell 1949), Triepeolus subnitens Cockerell and Timberlake, 1929 and Brachynomada nimia (Snelling and Rozen 1987). These records raise the total number of published species known from the state to 191. Anthemurgus and Brachynomada are also genera new to Mississippi.
Project description:BackgroundThe checklist of British and Irish aculeate Hymenoptera (Apoidea, Chrysidoidea and Vespoidea) is revised. Species distribution is summarised for all species at the level of country (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Isle of Man).New informationThe 601 native species represent an increase of 25 on the 1978 checklist, comprising mostly new discoveries. This increase is nearly balanced by the 23 species now presumed to be extinct in Britain and Ireland.
Project description:In this study, the first complete mitogenome of Andrenidae, namely Andrena camellia, is newly sequenced. It includes 13 protein-coding (PCG) genes, 22 transfer RNA (rRNA) genes, two ribosomal RNA (tRNA) genes, and a control region. Among PCGs, high conservation is observed in cytochrome oxidase genes with cox1 exhibits the highest conservation. Conversely, NADH dehydrogenase and ATPase subunit genes are more variable with atp8 presents the maximal variation. Comparison of the gene order indicates complex rearrangement in bees. Most of the rearranged events are located in the tRNA clusters of trnI-trnQ-trnM, trnW-trnC-trnY, and trnA-trnR-trnN-trnS1-trnE-trnF. Furthermore, we present the most comprehensive mitochondrial phylogeny of bee families. The monophyly of each family and the long-tongued bees is highly supported. However, short-tongued bees are inferred as paraphyletic relative to the sister relationship between Melittidae and other bee families. Furthermore, to improve the resolution of phylogeny, various datasets and analytical approaches are performed. It is indicated that datasets including third codons of PCGs facilitate to produce identical topology and higher nodal support. The tRNA genes that have typical cloverleaf secondary structures also exhibit similar positive effects. However, rRNAs present poor sequence alignment and distinct substitution saturation, which result in negative effects on both tree topology and nodal support. In addition, Gblocks treatment can increase the congruence of topologies, but has opposite effects on nodal support between the two inference methods of maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference.
Project description:BackgroundThroughout South Tyrol, in northern Italy, there is a data deficiency relating to wild bee species pool. Here, we present significant findings from the collection of 3,313 wild bees gathered over two separate studies conducted in consecutive years. Our research focused on the impact of landscape heterogeneity, temperature and land-use change on wild bee communities and their pollination services in an agricultural and mountainous landscape. This article provides a detailed account of the 150 identified wild bee species collected using coloured pan traps. We report habitat type, occurrence data, threat status, sociality, nesting strategy and diet breadth. In Italian regions where information on wild bee distribution is lacking or outdated, sharing data is crucial for developing conservation policies.New informationThe compiled species list strengthens regional and national wild bee database by providing new distribution data for extinction-threatened species, such as Dufoureadentiventris (Nylander, 1848), Dufoureainermis (Nylander, 1848), Lasioglossumbrevicorne (Schenck, 1870), Lasioglossumlaevigatum (Kirby, 1802), Lasioglossummonstrificum (Morawitz, 1891), Nomadamutica Morawitz, 1872 and Nomadavillosa Thomson, 1870. Additionally, we present recent findings of species that are valuable for understanding range expansions, recording species previously unreported in South Tyrol and updating historical data for the region.
Project description:We report 18 species of wild bees plus the domesticated honeybee from the Azores, which adds nine species to earlier lists. One species, Hylaeus azorae, seems to be a single island endemic, and three species are possibly native (Colletes eous, Halictus villosulus, and Hylaeus pictipes). All the remaining bee species are most likely accidental introductions that arrived after human colonization of the archipelago in the 15th century. Bee diversity in the Azores is similar to bee diversity of Madeira and Cape Verde but nearly ten times lower than it is in the Canary Islands.
Project description:BackgroundHere we present preliminary results from the first three years of a long-term bee survey conducted at a 3,840-ha private conservation property in the northern Sapphire Mountains and Bitterroot River Valley, and a pilot study at an associated 80-ha property in the Swan River Valley, Missoula County, Montana, USA. The survey includes hand-net, bowl-trap, and blue-vane trap collections. The resulting checklist comprises 229 bee species and morphospecies within 5 families, 38 genera and 91 subgenera. Of the total species in the list, 34 of them represent first state records Montana. This survey expands the number of bee species recorded in Montana to 366. Included in these species is Megachile (Eutricharaea) apicalis Spinola, showing a range expansion for this introduced bee.New informationWe present new distributional records for 34 bee species, including Megachile (Eutricharaea) apicalis Spinola, an introduced bee that was discovered to be resident in North America in 1984 in Santa Barbara County, California. This species has since expanded its range in the across the west, but had not been previously recorded in Montana.
Project description:High-altitude ecosystems are found in mountain chains and plateaus worldwide. These areas tend to be underrepresented in insect biodiversity assessments because of the challenges related to systematic survey at these elevations, such as extreme climatic and geographic conditions. Nonetheless, high-altitude ecosystems are of paramount importance because they have been seen to be species pumps for other geographic areas, such as adjacent locations, functioning as buffers for population declines. Moreover, these ecosystems and their biodiversity have been proposed to be fast-responding indicators of the impacts caused by global climate change. Bees have been highlighted among the insect groups that have been affected by these problems. This work used bees as a proxy to demonstrate and reinforce the importance of systematic surveys of high-altitude ecosystems. Here, field collections were undertaken and an updated review was conducted for the native bee biodiversity of the high-altitude ecosystem found at the Andes system of central Chile, including the phenological trends of these insects during the flowering season. Of the 58 species that have been described for this location, we were able to confirm the occurrence of 46 of these species as a result of our sampling. In addition, thanks to these recent collections, a new species of Xeromelissa Cockerell is described in the present work. These findings highlight the need for further high-altitude insect surveys of this biome, which include both temporal and spatial complexity in their design, to allow for accurate assessment of bee species diversity and compositional changes in these mountain regions.