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1
Worthy, Sydney H., John H. Acorn, and Carol M. Frost. "Biodiversity measures of a grassland plant-pollinator community are resilient to the introduction of honey bees (Apis mellifera)." PLOS ONE 19, no. 10 (2024): e0309939. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0309939.
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The prairies of Canada support a diversity of insect pollinators that contribute pollination services to flowering crops and wild plants. Habitat loss and use of managed pollinators has increased conservation concerns for wild pollinators, as mounting evidence suggests that honey bees (Apis mellifera) may reduce their diversity and abundance. Plant-pollinator community analyses often omit non-bee pollinators, which can be valuable contributors to pollination services. Here, we experimentally introduced honey bees to examine how their abundance affects the species richness, diversity, abundance, species composition, interaction richness, and interaction diversity of all wild pollinators, and of four higher taxa separately. We identified all insect pollinators and analyzed how honey bee abundance affected the above biodiversity metrics, controlling for flower abundance and flower species richness. Even with high honey bee densities, there was no change to any of these variables, except that beetle species diversity increased. All other taxa had no significant relationship to honey bee abundance. Considering the widespread use of managed honey bees, the effect they have on wild pollinators should be firmly established. Our results suggest that honey bees have little to no short-term impact on the wild pollinator community or its interactions with plants in this native grassland.
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Egerer, Monika, Jacob Cecala, and Hamutahl Cohen. "Wild Bee Conservation within Urban Gardens and Nurseries: Effects of Local and Landscape Management." Sustainability 12, no. 1 (2019): 293. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12010293.
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Across urban environments, vegetated habitats provide refuge for biodiversity. Gardens (designed for food crop production) and nurseries (designed for ornamental plant production) are both urban agricultural habitats characterized by high plant species richness but may vary in their ability to support wild pollinators, particularly bees. In gardens, pollinators are valued for crop production. In nurseries, ornamental plants rarely require pollination; thus, the potential of nurseries to support pollinators has not been examined. We asked how these habitats vary in their ability to support wild bees, and what habitat features relate to this variability. In 19 gardens and 11 nurseries in California, USA, we compared how local habitat and landscape features affected wild bee species abundance and richness. To assess local features, we estimated floral richness and measured ground cover as proxies for food and nesting resources, respectively. To assess landscape features, we measured impervious land cover surrounding each site. Our analyses showed that differences in floral richness, local habitat size, and the amount of urban land cover impacted garden wild bee species richness. In nurseries, floral richness and the proportion of native plant species impacted wild bee abundance and richness. We suggest management guidelines for supporting wild pollinators in both habitats.
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Varnava, Androulla I., Stuart P. M. Roberts, Denis Michez, et al. "The wild bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) of the island of Cyprus." ZooKeys 924 (April 6, 2020): 1–114. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.924.38328.
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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.
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Blaauw, Brett R., and Rufus Isaacs. "Larger patches of diverse floral resources increase insect pollinator density, diversity, and their pollination of native wildflowers." Basic and Applied Ecology 15, no. 8 (2014): 701–11. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13409808.
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(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Native wildflower plantings can be used to provide nutritional resources to support pollinating insects, yet the effects of planting size and bloom richness on the density, diversity, and function of these insects are not well understood. We established stands of twelve native flowering perennial plant species in replicated plots ranging in size from 1 to 100 m2. These plots were sampled for insect pollinators, bloom richness, and seed production by three wildflower species. Honeybees, wild bees, and hoverflies all responded positively to increasing flower richness, whereas particular insect pollinator groups responded differently to the size of the flowering plant area. The density of honeybees and hoverflies was not affected by increasing flowering patch size, whereas in general, wild bees were observed at higher density and diversity in the 30 and 100 m2 patches. Increasing wildflower patch size, and thus wild bee density, resulted in greater seed set in the sampled wildflowers. These results indicate that wild bees are sensitive to the area and richness of floral resources in patches, even at relatively small scales. Therefore, larger wildflower plantings with more diverse flower species mixes are more suitable for the conservation of wild pollinators and reproduction of sown species.
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Blaauw, Brett R., and Rufus Isaacs. "Larger patches of diverse floral resources increase insect pollinator density, diversity, and their pollination of native wildflowers." Basic and Applied Ecology 15, no. 8 (2014): 701–11. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13409808.
Full textAbstract:
(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Native wildflower plantings can be used to provide nutritional resources to support pollinating insects, yet the effects of planting size and bloom richness on the density, diversity, and function of these insects are not well understood. We established stands of twelve native flowering perennial plant species in replicated plots ranging in size from 1 to 100 m2. These plots were sampled for insect pollinators, bloom richness, and seed production by three wildflower species. Honeybees, wild bees, and hoverflies all responded positively to increasing flower richness, whereas particular insect pollinator groups responded differently to the size of the flowering plant area. The density of honeybees and hoverflies was not affected by increasing flowering patch size, whereas in general, wild bees were observed at higher density and diversity in the 30 and 100 m2 patches. Increasing wildflower patch size, and thus wild bee density, resulted in greater seed set in the sampled wildflowers. These results indicate that wild bees are sensitive to the area and richness of floral resources in patches, even at relatively small scales. Therefore, larger wildflower plantings with more diverse flower species mixes are more suitable for the conservation of wild pollinators and reproduction of sown species.
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Blaauw, Brett R., and Rufus Isaacs. "Larger patches of diverse floral resources increase insect pollinator density, diversity, and their pollination of native wildflowers." Basic and Applied Ecology 15, no. 8 (2014): 701–11. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13409808.
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(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Native wildflower plantings can be used to provide nutritional resources to support pollinating insects, yet the effects of planting size and bloom richness on the density, diversity, and function of these insects are not well understood. We established stands of twelve native flowering perennial plant species in replicated plots ranging in size from 1 to 100 m2. These plots were sampled for insect pollinators, bloom richness, and seed production by three wildflower species. Honeybees, wild bees, and hoverflies all responded positively to increasing flower richness, whereas particular insect pollinator groups responded differently to the size of the flowering plant area. The density of honeybees and hoverflies was not affected by increasing flowering patch size, whereas in general, wild bees were observed at higher density and diversity in the 30 and 100 m2 patches. Increasing wildflower patch size, and thus wild bee density, resulted in greater seed set in the sampled wildflowers. These results indicate that wild bees are sensitive to the area and richness of floral resources in patches, even at relatively small scales. Therefore, larger wildflower plantings with more diverse flower species mixes are more suitable for the conservation of wild pollinators and reproduction of sown species.
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Kougioumoutzis, Konstantinos, Aggeliki Kaloveloni, and Theodora Petanidou. "Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Island Bees: The Aegean Archipelago." Biology 11, no. 4 (2022): 552. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology11040552.
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Pollinators’ climate change impact assessments focus mainly on mainland regions. Thus, we are unaware how island species might fare in a rapidly changing world. This is even more pressing in the Mediterranean Basin, a global biodiversity hotspot. In Greece, a regional pollinator hotspot, climate change research is in its infancy and the insect Wallacean shortfall still remains unaddressed. In a species distribution modelling framework, we used the most comprehensive occurrence database for bees in Greece to locate the bee species richness hotspots in the Aegean, and investigated whether these might shift in the future due to climate change and assessed the Natura 2000 protected areas network effectiveness. Range contractions are anticipated for most taxa, becoming more prominent over time. Species richness hotspots are currently located in the NE Aegean and in highly disturbed sites. They will shift both altitudinally and latitudinally in the future. A small proportion of these hotspots are currently included in the Natura 2000 protected areas network and this proportion is projected to decrease in the coming decades. There is likely an extinction debt present in the Aegean bee communities that could result to pollination network collapse. There is a substantial conservation gap in Greece regarding bees and a critical re-assessment of the established Greek protected areas network is needed, focusing on areas identified as bee diversity hotspots over time.
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Gérard, Maxence, William Fiordaliso, Louise Ferrais, et al. "Wild bee diversity of the National Park of the Semois Valley (Belgium)." Biodiversity Data Journal 13 (February 12, 2025): e144223. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e144223.
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Wild bees are essential pollinators, yet their decline due to human activities threatens ecosystem stability. Protecting these pollinators requires a detailed understanding of both their diversity and distribution. In Belgium, the recently-established Semois Valley National Park (SVNP) is located in a region with limited bee sampling data and this study aims to identify the habitats most suitable to bees, especially for threatened species.Over five months, we surveyed 32 sites and collected a total of 1,119 specimens belonging to 120 bee species. Twenty-two of the observed species are listed as threatened in Belgium according to the last Red List published in 2019 for the country, four of them being Critically Endangered. Our findings indicate that mesic grasslands support the highest species diversity, as well as the highest number of threatened species. Our results underscore the need for conservation efforts aimed at maintaining diversity and species richness in this region. Effective biodiversity preservation will require enhanced habitat management and strategies tailored to bee species' ecological requirements.
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Thapa-Magar, Khum Bahadur, Thomas Seth Davis, and Boris Kondratieff. "Livestock grazing is associated with seasonal reduction in pollinator biodiversity and functional dispersion but cheatgrass invasion is not: Variation in bee assemblages in a multi-use shortgrass prairie." PLOS ONE 15, no. 12 (2020): e0237484. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237484.
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Livestock grazing and non-native plant species affect rangeland habitats globally. These factors may have important effects on ecosystem services including pollination, yet, interactions between pollinators, grazing, and invasive plants are poorly understood. To address this, we tested the hypothesis that cattle grazing and site colonization by cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) impact bee foraging and nesting habitats, and the biodiversity of wild bee communities, in a shortgrass prairie system. Bee nesting habitats (litter and wood cover) were marginally improved in non-grazed sites with low cheatgrass cover, though foraging habitat (floral cover and richness, bare soil) did not differ among cattle-grazed sites or non-grazed sites with low or high cheatgrass cover. However, floral cover was a good predictor of bee abundance and functional dispersion. Mean bee abundance, richness, diversity and functional diversity were significantly lower in cattle-grazed habitats than in non-grazed habitats. Differences in bee diversity among habitats were pronounced early in the growing season (May) but by late-season (August) these differences eroded as Melissodes spp. and Bombus spp. became more abundant at study sites. Fourth-corner analysis revealed that sites with high floral cover tended to support large, social, polylectic bees; sites with high grass cover tended to support oligolectic solitary bees. Both cattle-grazed sites and sites with high cheatgrass cover were associated with lower abundances of above-ground nesting bees but higher abundance of below-ground nesters than non-grazed sites with low cheatgrass cover. We conclude that high cheatgrass cover is not associated with reduced bee biodiversity or abundance, but cattle grazing was negatively associated with bee abundances and altered species composition. Although floral cover is an important predictor of bee assemblages, this was not impacted by cattle grazing and our study suggests that cattle likely impact bee communities through effects other than those mediated by forbs, including soil disturbance or nest destruction. Efforts aimed at pollinator conservation in prairie habitats should focus on managing cattle impacts early in the growing season to benefit sensitive bee species.
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Le, Féon Violette, Mael Garrin, David Genoud, et al. "Exploring the bee fauna on the islands of Brittany (France): an initial survey reveals a remarkable species richness." Biodiversity Data Journal 13 (February 14, 2025): e138570. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e138570.
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Islands are areas where biodiversity conservation is of the utmost importance and is particularly challenging due to the isolation and vulnerability of animal and plant populations. The coastline of Brittany includes a large number of islands, which vary greatly in size, distance from the mainland, landscape composition and climate. Until recently, virtually nothing was known about the bees on these islands, but a number of studies have been carried out in recent years, allowing an initial assessment to be made. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the bee fauna of the islands of Brittany, in terms of species richness, species composition and rarity status. In total, we gathered records of 188 wild bee species on 25 continental islands, located on both the north and south coasts of Brittany. For most of the islands, we obtained only occasional data, but a few have benefitted from intensive surveys, with data collected throughout the entire flight period and over several years and in different locations and habitat types. For four islands, we considered that the current knowledge is relatively good: Groix (113 wild bee species), Houat (82 species), Hoedic (64 species) and Ouessant (57 species). In addition to the number of species, this study shows that the islands host many species that are rare at regional or national level. Our results highlight the importance of taking bees into account when managing habitats and defining protected areas in islands, in order to conserve both food resources and nesting sites for these pollinator insects.
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Leach, Megan E., and Frank Drummond. "A Review of Native Wild Bee Nutritional Health." International Journal of Ecology 2018 (October 25, 2018): 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/9607246.
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Declines in wild and managed bee species richness and abundances have been observed throughout Europe and North America in recent decades. These declines have led to questions regarding pollination of wild and cultivated plants. In response to these concerns, efforts towards the conservation of pollinators have been initiated. Part of this conservation effort should be to provide the basic nutritional needs for bees. Nutrition plays one of the most important roles in bee growth, development, and reproduction. There is a large body of information regarding honey bee nutrition, whereas we lack nutritional information on native wild bees. Our knowledge of bumble bee nutritional needs has increased since the introduction of commercial rearing and sale of certain bumble bee species; however, there is still a lack of basic nutritional guidelines such as minimum dietary needs of proteins, amino acids, lipids, and sterols. The large difference in physiology and life history between honey bees and North American wild bees suggests that their nutritional requirements could be quite different.
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Anderson, Maggie, Floréal Crubaugh, Cady Greenslit, et al. "B.Y.O. Bees: Managing wild bee biodiversity in urban greenspaces." PLOS ONE 18, no. 4 (2023): e0281468. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281468.
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As cities become more populated and the density of urban development increases, local biodiversity is threatened. Urban greenspaces have the capacity to preserve pollinator biodiversity, but the quality of support they provide depends on greenspace landscape attributes, including the availability of pollinator habitat and foraging resources. Wild native bees provide important pollination services to urban ecosystems, yet relatively little is known about how urban landscape management influences pollinator community composition and diversity. Our study explores how wild bee communities are affected by greenspace and landscape-level features like pollinator management practices, in urban greenspaces in and around Appleton Wisconsin: a mid-sized urban community spanning more than 100 sq. km. We sampled and identified native bees periodically between late-May 2017 and mid-September of 2018 using standardized arrays of pan traps at 15 sites around the city. We classified greenspaces based on their level of development (urban or suburban) and whether they were managed or unmanaged for increasing wild pollinator diversity. We quantified floral species diversity, floral color diversity, tree species diversity, and proximity of sites to open water for each site and used remotely sensed satellite data from both the USGS National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). All variables were tested as potential correlates of wild bee abundance and species richness. Active pollinator management sites supported higher levels of bee abundance and richness. Notably, active greenspace management (e.g. planting native wildflowers) was a stronger correlate of bee abundance and richness than greenspace size and other landscape-level attributes. Within-greenspace attributes such as floral diversity, tree diversity, and proximity to open water contributed positively to both bee abundance and richness. Based on these findings, we suggest that urban greenspaces may be managed more efficiently and cost-effectively by focusing resources on active management by planting wildflowers, removing invasive species, creating nesting habitat, and providing water resources, rather than simply expanding in area.
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Drissa Coulibaly, Yalamoussa Tuo, Mouhamadou Koné, Larba Hubert Balima, Souleymane Konaté, and Katharina Stein. "Phenology of wild and honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) in the Sudanian Savannas of West Africa." World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews 24, no. 1 (2024): 766–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2024.24.1.3097.
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Wild and honey bees in West Africa are very crucial for plant pollination and ecosystem functioning. However, the study on the phenology of bee species in this region is poorly documented, jeopardizing their conservation. The current study was carried out in three localities across two climatic zones in Southern Burkina Faso. During one-year fieldwork, 19,022 specimens of bees were captured using colored pan traps (UV: white, blue and yellow). Bees were identified at the species level in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. A total of 105 bee species belonging to 32 genera and 4 families (Apidae, Megachilidae, Halictidae and Colletidae) were identified. Halictidae was the most diverse family. The diversity of bee species varied between land-use intensity and climatic zones. The highest diversity was found in low-disturbed zone (H’ = 2.73) and in the most humid zone. The lowest richness of bees (17 species) was recorded in January corresponding to the coolest period, while the highest richness was obtained in August (62 species). The high abundance of bee species was recorded during the wettest months (July and August) whereas lower abundance was observed in the dry season (October). According to the phenology diagrams, seven wild bee species Braunsapis sp. 1, Braunsapis sp. 2, Braunsapis sp. 3, Ceratina sp. 1, Hypotrigona gribodoi, Pseudapis interstitinervis, Seladonia jucunda and the honeybee Apis mellifera were present throughout the year. The other bee species were encountered at different periods of the year. The knowledge of bee phenology constitutes an important database for bee monitoring and bee conservation and their ecosystem services that they provide free to humans.
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Varnava, Androulla I., George A. Manganaris, and Menelaos C. Stavrinides. "Assessing the biodiversity and the impact of pollinators on carob production." PLOS ONE 18, no. 10 (2023): e0291431. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291431.
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As the current climate crisis intensifies, drought resistant crops are becoming more important due to their ability to withstand the increasingly hotter and drier summers. Such crops are valuable for pollinators as they provide food resources for wild and managed species. The carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua L.) represents an example of a heat- and drought- resistant crop, able to grow in dry areas with practically no inputs. The current study assessed over two growing seasons the diversity of wild bees and other pollinators relying on carob flowers, as well as the contribution of animal pollination to carob production. Carob flowers were subjected to two treatments: Open pollination, where inflorescences were left untreated, and wind pollination, where inflorescences were bagged in a mesh during blooming. Weekly observations during blooming showed that Apis mellifera was the most frequent floral visitor followed by wild bees and wasps. Carob flowers were visited by at least 10 different wild bee species. Open-pollinated flowers produced significantly more pods, with the benefit ranging from 4 to 16 times higher production, depending on the region. Open pollination led to pods with greater weight, length and number of seeds compared to pods derived from wind pollination. The results of the current study highlight the importance of animal pollination to carob production, as well as the significance of carob trees to wild bee conservation.
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RAMELLO, Pablo J., Valentín ALMADA, Graciela CUESTA, et al. "Diversity of bees during flowering of onion crops in a xeric envi-ronment." Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina 83, no. 4 (2024): 58–64. https://doi.org/10.25085/rsea.830406.
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The study of bee species present in agricultural landscapes is necessary to identify potential crop pollina-tors and promote the ecosystem services they provide. Bee community studies are the first step to know the bee species in a given area, as well as their abundance and activity periods. The aim of this research was to identify bee species as potential pollinators of onion crops in a xeric area of Argentina (San Juan province). Specimens were captured with elevated pan traps during flowering of onion crops, and the bee community was characterized by functional traits such as body size, nesting biology, and sociality. Additionally, we stud-ied the period of activity for each species in relation to the peak of onion blossom. Traps collected a total of 1,765 individuals and 55 species/morphospecies of bees were identified, reporting 21 new records for San Juan province. The most abundant species were Apis mellifera L. and two species of Lasioglossum (Dialic-tus) Robertson. The bee community was characterized by a great richness of species of small and very small size, with a preference for nesting below ground and solitary behavior. Among wild bees, genus La-sioglossum Curtis showed a high diversity (richness and abundance) during onion flowering. Future studies are needed to determine their contribution to the pollination of this crop. In this study, we highlight the diver-sity of wild bees present during onion flowering in a xeric environment and its importance for future ecolog-ical, conservation, and pollination studies.
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Drissa, Coulibaly, Tuo Yalamoussa, Koné Mouhamadou, Hubert Balima Larba, Konaté Souleymane, and Stein Katharina. "Phenology of wild and honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) in the Sudanian Savannas of West Africa." World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews 24, no. 1 (2024): 766–87. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15012794.
Full textAbstract:
Wild and honey bees in West Africa are very crucial for plant pollination and ecosystem functioning. However, the study on the phenology of bee species in this region is poorly documented, jeopardizing their conservation. The current study was carried out in three localities across two climatic zones in Southern Burkina Faso. During one-year fieldwork, 19,022 specimens of bees were captured using colored pan traps (UV: white, blue and yellow). Bees were identified at the species level in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. A total of 105 bee species belonging to 32 genera and 4 families (Apidae, Megachilidae, Halictidae and Colletidae) were identified. Halictidae was the most diverse family. The diversity of bee species varied between land-use intensity and climatic zones. The highest diversity was found in low-disturbed zone (H’ = 2.73) and in the most humid zone. The lowest richness of bees (17 species) was recorded in January corresponding to the coolest period, while the highest richness was obtained in August (62 species). The high abundance of bee species was recorded during the wettest months (July and August) whereas lower abundance was observed in the dry season (October). According to the phenology diagrams, seven wild bee species <em>Braunsapis </em>sp. 1<em>, Braunsapis </em>sp. 2<em>, Braunsapis </em>sp. 3<em>, Ceratina </em>sp. 1<em>, Hypotrigona gribodoi, Pseudapis interstitinervis, Seladonia jucunda</em> and the honeybee <em>Apis mellifera</em> were present throughout the year. The other bee species were encountered at different periods of the year. The knowledge of bee phenology constitutes an important database for bee monitoring and bee conservation and their ecosystem services that they provide free to humans.
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Neumüller, Ulrich, Hannah Burger, Hans Richard Schwenninger, et al. "Prolonged blooming season of flower plantings increases wild bee abundance and richness in agricultural landscapes." Biodiversity and Conservation 30, no. 11 (2021): 3003–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02233-4.
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AbstractFlower plantings can increase the abundance of bees and improve pollination services in the surrounding landscape. However, uncertainty remains as to whether flower plantings play a role in wild bee conservation. The aim of this study has been to examine the contribution of the composition and management of flower plantings to the attraction of bees, particularly of endangered species. In a large-scale monitoring project, wild bee data were collected on 60 flower plantings and 120 semi-natural reference plots in 20 study sites over 2 years. In total, we recorded 60,335 bees belonging to 351 species. In flower plantings, bee species richness and abundance were intricately linked to high plant richness and constant blooming throughout the season. In the first year of this study, a complimentary blooming phenology of annual and perennial plants resulted in a more constant bloom on flower plantings. In the second year, partial mowing of flower plantings mid-season enhanced floral resources during the late season. As a result, bee richness and abundance in flower plantings increased from the first to the second year. Nevertheless, the compositional heterogeneity of bees over all 20 sites in Germany did not increase from the first to the second year. We conclude that diverse and constant blooming throughout the season is the most important factor for promoting bees in flower plantings. To ensure sufficient beta diversity over a large spatial scale, we recommend the adjustment of seed mixtures according to the geographical region.
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Delphia, Casey, Terry Griswold, Elizabeth Reese, Kevin O'Neill, and Laura Burkle. "Checklist of bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) from small diversified vegetable farms in south-western Montana." Biodiversity Data Journal 7 (January 28, 2019): e30062. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e30062.
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Over 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. We 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.
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Ahrenfeldt, E. J., B. K. Klatt, J. Arildsen, et al. "Pollinator communities in strawberry crops – variation at multiple spatial scales." Bulletin of Entomological Research 105, no. 4 (2015): 497–506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s000748531500036x.
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AbstractPredicting potential pollination services of wild bees in crops requires knowledge of their spatial distribution within fields. Field margins can serve as nesting and foraging habitats for wild bees and can be a source of pollinators. Regional differences in pollinator community composition may affect this spill-over of bees. We studied how regional and local differences affect the spatial distribution of wild bee species richness, activity-density and body size in crop fields. We sampled bees both from the field centre and at two different types of semi-natural field margins, grass strips and hedges, in 12 strawberry fields. The fields were distributed over four regions in Northern Europe, representing an almost 1100 km long north-south gradient. Even over this gradient, daytime temperatures during sampling did not differ significantly between regions and did therefore probably not impact bee activity. Bee species richness was higher in field margins compared with field centres independent of field size. However, there was no difference between centre and margin in body-size or activity-density. In contrast, bee activity-density increased towards the southern regions, whereas the mean body size increased towards the north. In conclusion, our study revealed a general pattern across European regions of bee diversity, but not activity-density, declining towards the field interior which suggests that the benefits of functional diversity of pollinators may be difficult to achieve through spill-over effects from margins to crop. We also identified dissimilar regional patterns in bee diversity and activity-density, which should be taken into account in conservation management.
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Cohen, Hamutahl, Monika Egerer, Summer-Solstice Thomas, and Stacy M. Philpott. "Local and landscape features constrain the trait and taxonomic diversity of urban bees." Landscape Ecology 37, no. 2 (2021): 583–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01370-z.
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Abstract Context There is concern that urbanization threatens bees, a diverse group of economic importance. The impact of urbanization on bees is likely mediated by their phenotypic traits. Objectives We examine how urban cover and resource availability at local and landscape scales influences both species taxonomic and functional diversity in bees. Methods We used a combination of aerial netting and pan traps across six sampling periods to collect wild bees in 18 urban gardens spanning more than 125 km of the California central coast. We identified 3537 specimens to genus and, when possible, to species to obtain species richness and abundance at each site. For each species we measured a suite of bee traits, including body size, sociality, nesting location, nesting behavior, pollen-carrying structure, parasitism, and lecty. Results We found that increased garden size was positively associated with bee species richness and abundance. Somewhat counterintuitively, we found that urban cover surrounding gardens (2 km) was positively associated with bee species richness. Urban cover was also associated with the prevalence of certain bee traits, such as bees that excavate nests over those who rent, and bees with non-corbiculate structures. We suggest that urban habitats such as gardens can host a high number of bee species, but urbanization selects for species with specific traits. Conclusions These findings illustrate that local and landscape features both influence bee abundance, species richness, and the frequency of specific traits. We highlight the importance of trait-based approaches for assessing biodiversity in urban landscapes, and suggest conceptualizing urbanization as a process of habitat change rather than habitat loss.
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Wayo, Kanuengnit, Tuanjit Sritongchuay, Bajaree Chuttong, Korrawat Attasopa, and Sara Bumrungsri. "Local and Landscape Compositions Influence Stingless Bee Communities and Pollination Networks in Tropical Mixed Fruit Orchards, Thailand." Diversity 12, no. 12 (2020): 482. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d12120482.
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Stingless bees are vital pollinators for both wild and crop plants, yet their communities have been affected and altered by anthropogenic land-use change. Additionally, few studies have directly addressed the consequences of land-use change for meliponines, and knowledge on how their communities change across gradients in surrounding landscape cover remains scarce. Here, we examine both how local and landscape-level compositions as well as forest proximity affect both meliponine species richness and abundance together with pollination networks across 30 mixed fruit orchards in Southern Thailand. The results reveal that most landscape-level factors significantly influenced both stingless bee richness and abundance. Surrounding forest cover has a strong positive direct effect on both factors, while agricultural and urbanized cover generally reduced both bee abundance and diversity. In the local habitat, there is a significant interaction between orchard size and floral richness with stingless bee richness. We also found that pollinator specialization in pollination networks decreased when the distance to the forest patch increased. Both local and landscape factors thus influenced meliponine assemblages, particularly the forest patches surrounding an orchard, which potentially act as a key reservoir for stingless bees and other pollinator taxa. Preservation of forest patches can protect the permanent nesting and foraging habitat of various pollinator taxa, resulting in high visitation for crop and wild plants.
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Olascoaga, Beñat, Anna Oldén, Kristiina Karhu, et al. "A socio-ecological study on a citizen-based initiative to transform urban lawns into meadows within the Helsinki metropolitan area." ARPHA Conference Abstracts 8 (May 28, 2025): e155791. https://doi.org/10.3897/aca.8.e155791.
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The ongoing loss of biodiversity worldwide, in addition to the increasing levels of urban sprawl and urbanisation, can further decrease the chances of human-nature interactions in cities, and hence reduce the interest and support for nature conservation initiatives. Understanding the impacts that pro-environmental initiatives can have in the context of human-nature interactions, as well as the citizens who engage in these types of endeavors is therefore necessary to avoid any increasing apathy towards nature conservation among the public.As part of an initiative within the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland, to transform lawns belonging to student housing associations into meadows, we developed a survey to explore residents' attitudes towards both types of greenspace settings. In addition, we also measured respondents' environmental identity and concern, as well as their experiences of nature. In order to measure the respondents' experiences of nature, we further developed a pool of 26 items and scaled them within six proposed dimensions: observing/interacting, consumptive/appreciative, self-directed/other-directed, separate/integrated, solitary/shared and positive/negative (Clayton et al. 2017).As part of the initiative, six lawns within the housing premises were also transformed into meadows via voluntary participation (Trémeau et al. 2024), by turning the existing soils upside down and sowing a mixture of domestically-grown pollinator-friendly seeds. We measured changes in vegetation, pollinator and soil microbial parameters, dynamics of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide fluxes, as well as soil physicochemical properties between control lawns and the transformed meadows over three consecutive years, starting a year before the transformations.Before the lawn transformations took place, we identified 26 and 23 plant species in control lawns and lawns to-be-transformed, respectively, both cases sharing 18 of the inventoried plant species. At the end of the study period, we detected 29 and 39 species in lawns and transformed meadows, respectively, 17 species being common to both greenspace settings. The vegetation richness and diversity significantly increased over time in the transformed meadows, unlike in control lawns. Additionally, differences in vegetation communities between the two types of greenspace settings increased over time. At the end of the study period, transformed meadows provided resources for 35 species of bees, more than a half of them being wild solitary bee species.Neither carbon dioxide emissions nor the fluxes of methane and nitrous oxide significantly differed between the two greenspace types, and none of the studied soil physicochemical properties differed between control lawn and transformed meadow soils. Similarly, neither phospholipid fatty acid-based soil microbial communities nor soil bacterial and fungal biomasses of soils from both types of greenspace settings did significantly differ with each other, suggesting that any possible change in soil aspects takes a longer time to respond to the exerted changes in greenspace management and plant communities.Lastly, we analysed the dimensionality of the respondents' experiences of nature via structural equation modelling, and we determined that the best model contained all the abovementioned dimensions except the consumptive/appreciative dimension. Our results also show that there were significant correlations between the respondents' experiences of nature and both their environmental identity and environmental concern. Nevertheless, correlations suggest experiences of nature to be a distinct construct from that of environmental identity and environmental concern. A larger number of respondents belonging to a more diverse range of stakeholders is necessary to verify whether such conclusions apply to a broader audience beyond that involved in this case study. This case study on a citizen-based pro-environmental transformative activity is a research example that incorporates social and environmental sciences to explore participants' nature experiences and attitudes, along with the short-term environmental effects that their transformative activity has on biodiversity, greenhouse gas dynamics and soil physicochemical properties. The study helps us to better understand the impacts that pro-environmental initiatives can have in the context of human-nature interactions, as well as the type of stakeholders who might engage in these types of pro-environmental activities.
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Zanini, Sebastiano, Matteo Dainese, Timo Kopf, et al. "New distribution records of wild bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) in South Tyrol (Italy): expanding the wild bee database." Biodiversity Data Journal 13 (February 25, 2025): e138625. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e138625.
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Throughout 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.The compiled species list strengthens regional and national wild bee database by providing new distribution data for extinction-threatened species, such as <i>Dufourea dentiventris</i> (Nylander, 1848), <i>Dufourea inermis</i> (Nylander, 1848), <i>Lasioglossum brevicorne</i> (Schenck, 1870), <i>Lasioglossum laevigatum</i> (Kirby, 1802), <i>Lasioglossum monstrificum</i> (Morawitz, 1891), <i>Nomada mutica</i> Morawitz, 1872 and <i>Nomada villosa</i> 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.
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van, den Berghe Eric, Giuliana Caprotti, and Iglesias José Fernando Tercero. "Bee richness and abundance at seven sites in San Antonio de Oriente, Honduras." Revista nicaragüense de Entomología 347 (July 14, 2024): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12738443.
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Bees are an essential component in any community with flowering plants which makes their global decline a concern. Moreover, this decline can be attributed to anthropogenic activity like the use of agrochemicals and may be exacerbated by the effects of climate change. The present investigation was designed to use altitudinal gradients to evaluate the potential effect of elevation, and seasonality in the richness and abundance of bee species. Malaise traps were run over 11 months with a total of 393 bees collected, belonging to 64 morphospecies. A direct correlation between richness and abundance was found, and an inverse relation was found between elevation, richness, and abundance. Precipitation influenced the abundance of bees (p<0.05), more than their richness (p > 0.05). The main factor affecting bee richness and abundance wasn´t elevation, but agricultural intervention and habitat. Further measures are required for the preservation of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, specifically refuge areas need to be large enough to provide effective buffers to prevent exposure of bees to toxins, or better yet, abstain from using pesticides that affect bees.
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Araújo, Vinícius Albano. "Bee Diversity in an Peri-Urban Patch of “Restinga”." International Journal of Zoology and Animal Biology 6, no. 5 (2023): 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.23880/izab-16000514.
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Bees gather food resources from angiosperm flowers, promoting pollination, cross-breeding, and increasing the genetic variability of many plant species. However, all over the world there has been a great decline in bee populations, with the most accepted hypotheses being the loss of habitat caused by urbanization, fungal contamination and pesticide residues. The collapse of bee colonies can unbalance ecosystems causing a reduction in plant abundance and directly impacting the agricultural economy. Peri-urban paths are considered refuges capable of sheltering part of the biodiversity, including communities of pollinators such as bees. On the Brazilian Atlantic coast, restinga ecosystems are fragmented and their remnants are threatened by anthropic actions and real estate speculation. In this work, the bee fauna was inventoried in a peri-urban patch of “restinga” in the Municipal Natural Park of Barreto’s Restinga in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the objective of understanding the structure of the bee community and its relationship with the availability of floral resources and seasonality. Collections were carried out monthly between February 2019 and February 2020. The methods included active collections with entomological nets between 08:00 and 17:00 hours. 363 individuals belonging to 31 bee species were sampled. The most abundant genera were Xylocopa, Eulaema and Eufriesia, with the highest richness and abundance during the summer. There was a significant relationship between the availability of floral resources and the richness and abundance of bees. There was also a positive relationship between bee richness and rainfall. The data generated may contribute to support public policies that ensure the maintenance and expansion of “restinga” areas in urban environments, contributing to the conservation of bee species in the Atlantic Forest.
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Stein, Katharina, Drissa Coulibaly, Larba Hubert Balima, et al. "Plant-Pollinator Networks in Savannas of Burkina Faso, West Africa." Diversity 13, no. 1 (2020): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d13010001.
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West African savannas are severely threatened with intensified land use and increasing degradation. Bees are important for terrestrial biodiversity as they provide native plant species with pollination services. However, little information is available regarding their mutualistic interactions with woody plant species. In the first network study from sub-Saharan West Africa, we investigated the effects of land-use intensity and climatic seasonality on plant–bee communities and their interaction networks. In total, we recorded 5686 interactions between 53 flowering woody plant species and 100 bee species. Bee-species richness and the number of interactions were higher in the low compared to medium and high land-use intensity sites. Bee- and plant-species richness and the number of interactions were higher in the dry compared to the rainy season. Plant–bee visitation networks were not strongly affected by land-use intensity; however, climatic seasonality had a strong effect on network architecture. Null-model corrected connectance and nestedness were higher in the dry compared to the rainy season. In addition, network specialization and null-model corrected modularity were lower in the dry compared to the rainy season. Our results suggest that in our study region, seasonal effects on mutualistic network architecture are more pronounced compared to land-use change effects. Nonetheless, the decrease in bee-species richness and the number of plant–bee interactions with an increase in land-use intensity highlights the importance of savanna conservation for maintaining bee diversity and the concomitant provision of ecosystem services.
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Ollivier, Mélodie, Justine Rivers-Moore, Magalie Pichon, et al. "Wild bees (Apoidea, Anthophila) of south-west France: more than 10 years of inventories in mosaic landscapes of "Vallées et Coteaux de Gascogne" (ZA-PYGAR)." Biodiversity Data Journal 12 (November 29, 2024): e135157. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e135157.
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The reported massive decline of arthropods and particularly of pollinators such as wild bees, in terms of abundance and richness, is a threat for crop production and wild plant biodiversity conservation. This decline is mainly explained by a combination of drivers at local- and landscape-scale related to intensive farming practices. Assessing the evolution of wild bee communities in agricultural ecosystems and their response to such practices is needed to address conservation purposes.We provide here data for the 24,329 wild bee specimens held in the collection of DYNAFOR Lab (UMR 1201 INRAE, INP-ENSAT, EI PURPAN), located at INP-ENSAT (Toulouse, France). All bee specimens were collected from the long term socio-ecological research site, ZA-PYGAR, located in south-west France, for more than 10 years (2010 to 2022) within the framework of different research programmes conducted by the DYNAFOR Lab. At least 270 species, representative of the six wild bee families, were identified from this area. The identified specimens are considered reliable as identifications were performed or have been verified by community-recognised experts. In addition, ongoing DNA barcoding performed on certain specimens helped clarify questionable morphological characters and provided cross-validation of species identification.
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Goulson, Dave, Elizabeth Nicholls, Cristina Botías, and Ellen Rotheray. "Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers." Science 347, no. 6229 (2015): 1255957. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1255957.
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BACKGROUND The species richness of wild bees and other pollinators has declined over the past 50 years, with some species undergoing major declines and a few going extinct. Evidence of the causes of these losses is patchy and incomplete, owing to inadequate monitoring systems. Managed honey bee stocks have also declined in North America and many European countries, although they have increased substantially in China. During this same period, the demand for insect pollination of crops has approximately tripled, and the importance of wild pollinators in providing such services has become increasingly apparent, leading to concern that we may be nearing a “pollination crisis” in which crop yields begin to fall. This has stimulated much-needed research into the causes of bee declines. Habitat loss, which has reduced the abundance and diversity of floral resources and nesting opportunities, has undoubtedly been a major long-term driver through the 20th century and still continues today. In addition, both wild and managed bees have been exposed to a succession of emerging parasites and pathogens that have been accidentally moved around the world by human action. The intensification of agriculture and increasing reliance on pesticides means that pollinators are also chronically exposed to cocktails of agrochemicals. Predicted changes in global climate are likely to further exacerbate such problems in the future. ADVANCES It has lately become clear that stressors do not act in isolation and that their interactions may be difficult to predict; for example, some pesticides act synergistically rather than additively. Both pesticide exposure and food stress can impair immune responses, rendering bees more susceptible to parasites. It seems certain that chronic exposure to multiple interacting stressors is driving honey bee colony losses and declines of wild pollinators, but the precise combination apparently differs from place to place. Although the causes of pollinator decline may be complex and subject to disagreement, solutions need not be; taking steps to reduce or remove any of these stresses is likely to benefit pollinator health. Several techniques are available that have been demonstrated to effectively increase floral availability in farmland. Similarly, encouraging gardeners to grow appropriate bee-friendly flowers and to improve management of amenity grasslands can also reduce dietary stress. Retaining or restoring areas of seminatural habitat within farmland will improve nest site availability. A return to the principles of integrated pest management and avoidance of prophylactic use of agrochemicals could greatly decrease exposure of bees to pesticides. OUTLOOK Interactions among agrochemicals and stressors are not addressed by current regulatory procedures, which typically expose well-fed, parasite-free bees to a single pesticide for a short period of time. Devising approaches to study these interactions and incorporating them into the regulatory process poses a major challenge. In the meantime, providing support and advice for farmers in more sustainable farming methods with reduced pesticide use is likely to have broad benefits for farmland biodiversity. Enforcing effective quarantine measures on bee movements to prevent further spread of bee parasites is also vital. Finally, effective monitoring of wild pollinator populations is urgently needed to inform management strategies. Without this, we have no early warning system to tell us how close we may be to a pollination crisis. With a growing human population and rapid growth in global demand for pollination services, we cannot afford to see crop yields begin to fall, and we would be well advised to take preemptive action to ensure that we have adequate pollination services into the future.
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BOUSTANI, MIRA, PIERRE RASMONT, HOLGER H. DATHE, et al. "The bees of Lebanon (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila)." Zootaxa 4976, no. 1 (2021): 1–146. http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4976.1.1.
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The study of wild bees has markedly increased in recent years due to their importance as pollinators of crops and wild plants, and this interest has been accentuated by increasing evidence of global declines in their abundance and species richness. Though best studied in Europe and North America, knowledge on the current state of wild bees is scarce in regions where they are particularly diversified, such as the Mediterranean basin. The eastern Mediterranean country of Lebanon, located at the heart of the Levant in a biodiversity hotspot, is particularly poorly studied. The aim of this paper is to produce a first annotated checklist of the wild bees of Lebanon from new and museum collections, literature records, and verified occurrences from online databases. The present list totals 573 species for Lebanon of which 289 are reported for the first time, but the estimated diversity is likely to be closer to 700. Preliminary information on local distributions and flower records are also presented. The local species assemblages indicate affinities with montane habitats of the Mediterranean and Anatolia and the semi-arid habitats of the Levant and north Africa. This study also encourages further research on local wild bee faunas and the use of this knowledge for conservation purposes.
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Roth, Tohar, Moshe Coll, and Yael Mandelik. "The Role of Uncultivated Habitats in Supporting Wild Bee Communities in Mediterranean Agricultural Landscapes." Diversity 15, no. 2 (2023): 294. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d15020294.
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In agricultural landscapes, uncultivated habitat patches may have a focal role in supporting communities of ecosystem service providers. However, little is known on the variances among different types of uncultivated habitat patches in providing resources and maintaining populations of these beneficial organisms. We studied wild bee communities in natural and semi-natural uncultivated patches embedded in semi-arid Mediterranean agricultural landscapes. We investigated the effects of local- and landscape-scale land-use characteristics, as well as their interactions, on bee diversity, functional composition, and forage and nesting resources. Most bee community parameters were affected by both local- and landscape-scale characteristics, but no significant interactions were found among the scales. Local land-use effects were related primarily to overall plant cover, and to the abundance and richness of flowering plants. Landscape effects, mostly limited to a 400 m range, were varied. The abundance of focal crop pollinators varied considerably between patch type and pollinator species. The different types of uncultivated habitats maintain complementary bee and flower communities. Our findings show the important role of uncultivated habitat patches in providing floral and nesting resources for bees, and creating resource-landscapes that can support wild bee communities and crop pollination services in Mediterranean agricultural landscapes.
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Praz, Christophe, Andreas Müller, Dimitri Bénon, Mike Herrmann, and Rainer Neumeyer. "Annotated checklist of the Swiss bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Anthophila): hotspots of diversity in the xeric inner Alpine valleys." Alpine Entomology 7 (November 10, 2023): 219–67. https://doi.org/10.3897/alpento.7.112514.
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We present a checklist of the Swiss bees and provide information on the distribution of every bee species in all 26 Swiss cantons. 632 species are reported, including the European honeybee <i>Apis mellifera</i> Linnaeus, 1758 and the exotic species <i>Megachile sculpturalis</i> Smith, 1853. Species richness in each canton was correlated with the canton area, with the four largest cantons hosting the highest number of species. Bee diversity hotspots were located in some Alpine inner valleys characterized by a dry and warm climate due to the rain shadow effects of surrounding mountains. These hotspots are mostly located in the steppe-like habitats of the Valais and Graubünden cantons. They host diverse wild bee communities which include a unique assemblage of submediterranean faunal elements and subalpine species. In addition, these habitats host rare species with strongly disjunct distributions in Europe, further stressing the conservation priority of these habitats for wild bee conservation. Intensive faunistic surveys performed in the last 20 years have revealed that about 20 bee species, either previously unknown for Switzerland or which had disappeared from the country for several decades, have colonised areas close to the borders of France and Italy. Most of these new or reappeared species were observed in the warmest area of the country and presumably colonized or recolonized the country from neighbouring regions following global warming. Lastly, DNA barcodes are presented for 394 specimens, including for many species so far not represented in the BOLD database. The taxonomic status of numerous unclear taxa is briefly discussed based on combined genetic and morphological analyses.
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Kilpatrick, Shelby Kerrin, Jason Gibbs, Martin M. Mikulas, et al. "An updated checklist of the bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Anthophila) of Pennsylvania, United States of America." Journal of Hymenoptera Research 77 (June 29, 2020): 1–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/jhr.77.49622.
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Checklists provide information about the species found in a defined region and serve as baselines for detecting species range expansions, contractions, or introductions. Bees are a diverse and important group of insect pollinators. Although some bee populations are declining, these patterns are difficult to document and generalize due to a lack of long-term studies for most localities. Documenting the diversity of wild bee communities is critical for assessing pollination services, community ecology, and geographical and temporal changes in distribution and density. Here, an updated checklist of the bees of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, USA, is presented. Since the first checklist was published (2010; 372 species), thousands of additional specimens from the state have been collected and databased, new species have been described in the region, and the taxonomic status of some species have changed. Specimen data from insect collections, databases, scientific literature, and unpublished records were compared to the original checklist. Seventy-nine new state species records – including 49 first-time reports – representing five of the six bee families in North America, were documented resulting in a total of at least 437 bee species reported from Pennsylvania. We highlight new county records and species persistence details. Our list includes a total of 23 exotic species and at least five species of conservation concern. Lists of species excluded from the state checklist and species anticipated to occur in Pennsylvania are also included. This checklist provides baseline data for researchers and the public. The benefits of insect collections, specimen databases, determination and voucher labels, and georeferencing to biodiversity studies and other aspects of biological research are also discussed.
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Kilpatrick, Shelby Kerrin, Jason Gibbs, Martin M. Mikulas, et al. "An updated checklist of the bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Anthophila) of Pennsylvania, United States of America." Journal of Hymenoptera Research 77 (June 29, 2020): 1–86. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.77.49622.
Full textAbstract:
Checklists provide information about the species found in a defined region and serve as baselines for detecting species range expansions, contractions, or introductions. Bees are a diverse and important group of insect pollinators. Although some bee populations are declining, these patterns are difficult to document and generalize due to a lack of long-term studies for most localities. Documenting the diversity of wild bee communities is critical for assessing pollination services, community ecology, and geographical and temporal changes in distribution and density. Here, an updated checklist of the bees of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, USA, is presented. Since the first checklist was published (2010; 372 species), thousands of additional specimens from the state have been collected and databased, new species have been described in the region, and the taxonomic status of some species have changed. Specimen data from insect collections, databases, scientific literature, and unpublished records were compared to the original checklist. Seventy-nine new state species records – including 49 first-time reports – representing five of the six bee families in North America, were documented resulting in a total of at least 437 bee species reported from Pennsylvania. We highlight new county records and species persistence details. Our list includes a total of 23 exotic species and at least five species of conservation concern. Lists of species excluded from the state checklist and species anticipated to occur in Pennsylvania are also included. This checklist provides baseline data for researchers and the public. The benefits of insect collections, specimen databases, determination and voucher labels, and georeferencing to biodiversity studies and other aspects of biological research are also discussed.
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Cruz, Terese Maxine P., Stephen L. Buchmann, and Kathleen L. Prudic. "Buzzing towards Resilience: Investigating the Spatial Alignment of the Desert Pallid Bee, Centris pallida, and Its Host Plants in Response to Climate Change." Insects 15, no. 10 (2024): 793. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects15100793.
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Wild bees are vital for the pollination of native plants and crops, providing essential ecosystem services. Climate change is known to impact biodiversity and species distributions, but insects adapted to desert ecosystems may exhibit unique physiological, behavioral, and evolutionary responses. The desert pallid bee (C. pallida), a solitary bee native to the arid southwestern United States and northern Mexico, primarily forages on yellow palo verde (P. microphylla), blue palo verde (P. florida), and desert ironwood (O. tesota). This study used MaxEnt to estimate the current and projected geographical overlap of suitable habitats for C. pallida and its host plants. Here, we used MaxEnt to estimate the current and forecasted overlapping geographically suitable habitat of C. pallida with all three host plants. We forecasted potential environmentally suitable areas for each species to the year 2040 using the current distribution model and climate projections with moderate CO2 levels. We found a continued spatial alignment in the suitable area of the bee and its host plants with a 70% increase in the range overlap area, though shifted to higher average altitudes and a slight northern expansion. These findings may provide insight to stakeholders on the conservation needs of desert-dwelling pollinators.
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Hansen, Katrine, Tuanjit Sritongchuay, Sara Bumrungsri, Benno I. Simmons, Niels Strange, and Bo Dalsgaard. "Landscape-Level Effects of Forest on Pollinators and Fruit Set of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) in Orchards across Southern Thailand." Diversity 12, no. 6 (2020): 259. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/d12060259.
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Pollination by wild pollinators is a key ecosystem service threatened by anthropogenic-induced land-use change. The proximity to natural habitat has previously been shown to positively affect pollinator communities and improve crop yield and quality but empirical evidence is limited from most parts of the World. Here, across six farms in Southern Thailand, we investigated the significance of landscape-level effects of natural habitat (proportion of and distance to evergreen forest) on both visitation rate and richness of pollinators as well as fruit set of guava (Psidium guajava L.), a local economically-important crop in the tropics. Overall, the most abundant pollinator was the Asian honey bee Apis cerana (39% of all visits) and different species of stingless bees (37%). We found that pollinator richness was unrelated to the proportion and distance to evergreen forest, however, the proportion of forest within a 1, 5 and 10 km radius had a significant positive impact on visitation rate of wild pollinators. Still, neither the various forest parameters nor pollinator visitation rate showed a significant impact on fruit set of guava, perhaps because guava self-pollinates. This illustrates that landscape-level degradation of natural habitat may negatively impact pollinator communities without diminishing the crop yield of the farmers.
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Somavilla, Alexandre, Karine Schoeninger, David Silva Nogueira, and Andreas Kohler. "Diversidade de abelhas (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) e visitação floral em uma área de Mata Atlântica no Sul do Brasil." EntomoBrasilis 11, no. 3 (2018): 191–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.12741/ebrasilis.v11i3.800.
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Resumo. A grande riqueza de abelhas está atrelada à grande diversidade de plantas com flores, que possuem certas atratividades para garantir a visita às flores, e consequente polinização. No Rio Grande do Sul, estudos sobre a fauna de abelhas e a flora apícola associada já foram realizados, porém ainda são escassos. Desta forma, correlacionamos os táxons de abelhas e espécies de plantas coletados em uma área florestal urbana e verificamos as relações ecológicas e tróficas entre elas, especialmente ao nicho da abelha exótica Apis mellifera Linnaeus, sobre as abelhas silvestres. Coletamos nas flores um total de 2.772 abelhas determinadas em cinco famílias, 54 gêneros e 88 táxons. Apidae foi a família melhor representada com 35 espécies e 2.047 indivíduos. As abelhas foram coletadas em 43 espécies de plantas classificadas em 19 famílias botânicas sendo Asteraceae a mais visitada. A planta com o maior número de abelhas coletadas foi Citrus sinensis (L.), 30% do total, tendo A. mellifera a mais representativa. 34% dos táxons de abelhas estão correlacionados às espécies de plantas visitadas, contudo, quando verificamos esta correlação excluindo a espécie A. mellifera,ocorre um aumento significativo, atingindo 93%. A manutenção deste fragmento vegetal a suas flores é importante para conservação da biodiversidade apifauna local.Diversity of bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) and floral visitation in an Atlantic Forest area in southern BrazilAbstract. The high bees’ richness is associated to the great diversity of flowering plants, which have some attractiveness to ensure flowers visiting and the consequent pollination. In Rio Grande do Sul state, studies on the bee fauna associated with bee flora have already been made but are uncommon. In this way, the taxa of bees and plants species visited were correlated, and the ecological and trophic relations between them, particularly in relation to the niche of the exotic bee Apis mellifera Linnaeus on wild bees were analyzed, in an urban forest area. We collected 2,772 bees from the flowers, determined in five families, 54 genera and 88 taxa. Apidae was the best family represented with 35 species and 2,047 individuals. The bees were collected from 43 plants species, classified in 19 botanical families, Asteraceae are the most visited. The plant with the largest number of bees collected was Citrus sinensis (L.), 30% of the bees, and the A. mellifera the most representative. 34% of the taxa of bees are correlated to the species of plants visited, however, when we see this correlation excluding A. mellifera, there is a significant increase, reaching 93%. The maintenance of this plant fragment and the flowers is important for preserving the bees’ biodiversity in this site.
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Delgado-Carrillo, Oliverio, Silvana Martén-Rodríguez, Diana Ramírez-Mejía, et al. "Pollination services to crops of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) and green tomato (Physalis ixocarpa) in the coastal region of Jalisco, Mexico." PLOS ONE 19, no. 7 (2024): e0301402. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301402.
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Bees play a pivotal role as pollinators in crops essential for human consumption. However, the global decline in bee populations poses a significant threat to pollination services and food security worldwide. The loss and degradation of habitats due to land use change are primary factors contributing to bee declines, particularly in tropical forests facing high deforestation rates. Here, we evaluate the pollination services provided to crops of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) and green tomato (Physalis ixocarpa) in three municipalities in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, a place with Tropical Dry Forest, during years 2008, and 2014 to 2017. Both crops are cultivated in the dry season, approximately during the months of November to March. We describe the composition of the pollinator community and their visitation frequency (measured through the number of visits per flower per hour), and we assess the impact of pollinators on plant reproductive success and the level of pollinator dependence for each crop species (measured through the number of flowers that developed into fruits). We also evaluate how the landscape configuration (through the percentage of forest cover and distance to the forest) influences richness and abundance of pollinators (measured as number of species and individuals of pollinators per line of 50 m), and we use the model Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) to map and value the pollination service in both crops. InVEST Crop pollination model is a simulation focuses on wild pollinators providing the pollinator ecosystem service. Our findings indicate that Apis mellifera was the primary pollinator of both crops, one of the few abundant pollinators in the study region during the dry season. In experiments where pollinators were excluded from flowers, watermelon yielded no fruits, while green tomato experienced a 65% reduction in production. In the case of green tomato, fruit set showed a positive correlation with pollinator abundance. A positive association between forest cover and total pollinator abundance was observed in green tomato in 2008, but not in watermelon. Additionally, a positive relationship was observed between the abundance of bees predicted by the InVEST model and the abundance of bees observed in green tomato flowers in 2008. In the study region, green tomato and watermelon rely on pollinators for fruit production, with honeybees (from feral and managed colonies) acting as the primary provider of pollination services for these crops. Consequently, the conservation of natural areas is crucial to provide food and nesting resources for pollinators. By doing so, we can ensure the diversity and abundance of pollinators, which in turn will help secure food security. The findings of this study underscore the critical need for the conservation of natural areas to support pollinator populations. Policymakers should prioritize the protection and restoration of habitats, particularly tropical forests, which are essential for maintaining the diversity and abundance of pollinators.
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Griffiths-Lee, Janine, Elizabeth Nicholls, and Dave Goulson. "Sown mini-meadows increase pollinator diversity in gardens." Journal of Insect Conservation 26, no. 2 (2022): 299–314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10841-022-00387-2.
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Abstract Habitat loss and fragmentation are considered the foremost threats in pollinator decline, and in England and Wales, 97% of wildflower meadows were lost by 1984. The value of creating flower-rich margins in agricultural environments is established, yet there is growing potential to support pollinator populations in urban landscapes. We used citizen science to investigate the effectiveness of small 4m2 sown wildflower ‘mini-meadows’ in UK gardens and allotments in recruiting beneficial insects. Participants were allocated one of three treatment groups: Mix 1 (commercially available ‘meadow mix’); Mix 2 (formulated based on existing literature on pollinator foraging preferences); or Control (no additional wildflowers). All participants conducted insect sampling over two years using standardised pan and sticky trap methods May–August. Samples were returned for identification by trained specialists. Mini-meadows provided resource-rich habitats, increasing wild bee richness and supporting on average 111% more bumblebees, 87% more solitary bees and 85% more solitary wasps in the year following seed-sowing, compared to Control plots. The wildflower mixes were also taxon-specific in their attractiveness. Mix 1 attracted more solitary bees and bumblebees, whereas Mix 2 attracted more solitary wasps. There was no significant difference in the abundance of hoverflies between treatments. Higher abundance of solitary wasps and bees caught amongst the mini-meadow was perhaps due to shorter foraging ranges. Implications for insect conservation Domestic gardens and allotments provide huge potential habitat for pollinators, and small-scale floral enhancements can attract more beneficial insects in fragmented urban landscapes, supporting urban biodiversity, pollination services and biological control.
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Eakin-Busher, E. L., P. G. Ladd, J. B. Fontaine, and R. J. Standish. "Mating strategies dictate the importance of insect visits to native plants in urban fragments." Australian Journal of Botany 68, no. 1 (2020): 26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/bt19122.
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Plant species conservation relies on their reproductive success and likelihood of population persistence. Knowledge of plant mating systems, particularly the relationship between plants and their pollinators, is fundamental to inform conservation efforts. This knowledge could be critical for prioritising efforts in human-dominated fragmented landscapes such as the world’s biodiversity hotspots, where reproductive success can be compromised due to habitat loss, limited access to pollinators or other factors. Yet, fundamental data on plant mating systems are lacking for many Australian plants. Here we determined the mating systems of native plant species growing in native woodland fragments within Perth’s urban landscape in south-western Australia. We manipulated insect access to flowers and pollen transfer on five locally common native species, then observed floral visitors and examined reproductive success. Hemiandra pungens and Patersonia occidentalis had mixed mating systems with some ability to self-pollinate, whereas Dianella revoluta and Jacksonia sericea were reliant on insects for outcross pollination. The fruits and seeds produced by Tricoryne elatior were too low to draw conclusions about its mating system. The introduced honey bee (Apis mellifera) was the sole visitor to the mixed mating species, whereas native bees visited D. revoluta and J. sericea (one bee species each). Overall, our data suggest that D. revoluta and J. sericea are more vulnerable to fragmentation than H. pungens and P. occidentalis. Although insects contributed significantly to the reproductive output of the two former plant species, our observations suggested low frequency and richness of insect visitors to these urban fragments. More research is required to determine the generality of our findings. A comparative study in larger native woodland fragments would help estimate the effect of fragmentation on insect pollinators and consequences for the insect-reliant plant species.
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Modeste, Randrianampiana, Ramananarivo Romaine, Rabenilaina Harinia, and Diamondra Razaivaovololoniaina Helinoro. "INTERDEPENDANCE ENTRE L'APICULTURE ET LES RESSOURCES NATURELLES." American Journal of Innovative Research & Applied Sciences (AJIRAS) 15, no. 2 (2022): 25–38. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15224604.
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<strong>RESUME </strong> <strong>Introduction</strong> : L’interdépendance entre l’apiculture et ressources naturelles permet aux populations riveraines de l’aire protégée de conserver la biodiversité. Les villages riverains de l’aire protégée d’Ankarafantsika figurent parmi les villages à vocation apicole de Madagascar. Il dispose une potentialité en ressources mellifères tout au long de l’année. <strong>Contexte</strong> : Les plantes forestières, les arbres fruitiers, les plantes cultivées et les plantes herbacées favorisent l’environnement adéquat à la pratique des activités apicoles. Pour se développer, les espèces végétales sont dépendantes de la pollinisation dont l’abeille domestique est l’un des meilleurs pollinisateurs. <strong>Objectifs</strong> : L’objectif général de l’étude traite l’interdépendance entre l’apiculture et les ressources naturelles dans la zone d’intervention du programme PAGE /GIZ autour de l’aire protégée d’Ankarafantsika à Madagascar pour déterminer l’importance de la richesse en biodiversité au développement de l’apiculture et montrer l’importance des services rendus par les abeilles à la biodiversité. <strong>Méthodes</strong> : L’enquête avec l’entretien direct par les questionnaires formulés au niveau des 54 apiculteurs, les documentations et les suivis au niveau des ruchers ont été effectués afin d’obtenir les données nécessaires sur l’interdépendance entre l’apiculture et les ressources naturelles. <strong>Résultats</strong> : cette recherche a montré que la principale race des abeilles existante est la race endémique, <em>Apis mellifera unicolor</em>. Elle assure la pollinisation des plantes mellifères et a tendance à être plus attirée par des fleurs claires de couleur jaune et blanche. Les apiculteurs de la zone d’études sont des agriculteurs et classés en apiculteurs traditionnels et en apiculteurs modernes, dont la majorité ont des âges inférieurs à 50 ans. Les plantes mellifères sont d’usages multiples et notamment dans la production apicole. <strong>Conclusion</strong> : Le développement de la filière apicole a des relations étroites dans la conservation des ressources naturelles. L’interdépendance de la biodiversité et de l’apiculture est très valorisée par les communautés surtout les exploitations agricoles dans leurs productions. <strong><em>Mots-clé</em></strong><em>s: </em><em>apiculture, Ankarafantsika, Madagascar, interdépendance, pollinisation, ressources mellifères.</em> <strong>ABSTRACT </strong> <strong> </strong> <strong>Introduction</strong>: The interdependence between beekeeping and natural resources enables the riparian populations of the protected area to conserve biodiversity. The riparian villages of the protected area of Ankarafantsika are among the villages with apiculture vocation of Madagascar. It has a potentiality in melliferous resources throughout the year. <strong>Context</strong>: Forest plants, fruit trees, cultivated plants and herbaceous plants provide an adequate environment for the practice of beekeeping activities. Plant species are dependent on pollination to thrive, of which the honey bee is one of the best pollinators. <strong>Objectives</strong>: The general objective of the study deals with the interdependence between beekeeping and natural resources in the intervention zone of the PAGE /GIZ program around the protected area of Ankarafantsika in Madagascar to determine the importance of the richness in biodiversity to the development of beekeeping and to show the importance of the services rendered by the bees to biodiversity. <strong>Methods</strong>: The survey with direct interview by questionnaires formulated at the level of 54 beekeepers, documentations and follow-ups at the level of apiaries were carried out in order to obtain the necessary data on the interdependence between beekeeping and natural resources. <strong>Results</strong>: This research showed that the main existing race of bees is the endemic race, Apis mellifera unicolor. It ensures the pollination of honey plants and tends to be more attracted by light flowers of yellow and white color. The beekeepers in the study area are farmers and classified into traditional and modern beekeepers, the majority of whom are under 50 years old. The melliferous plants are of multiple uses and in particular in the apiarian production. <strong>Conclusion</strong>: The development of the apiarian sector has close relations in the conservation of natural resources. The interdependence of biodiversity and beekeeping is highly valued by communities, especially farms, in their production. <strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><em>: beekeeping, Ankarafantsika, Madagascar, interdependence, pollination, melliferous resources.</em>
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Lanner, J., P. Unglaub, C. Rohrbach, B. Pachinger, S. Roberts, and S. Kratschmer. "How many bees fit in the city? A spatial ecological case study to conserve urban wild bees." Urban Ecosystems 28, no. 2 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-024-01666-3.
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Abstract Pollination is crucial for biodiversity and food security, with bees playing a significant role. The growing popularity of urban beekeeping is leading to increasing honeybee densities in cities, raising concerns about competition for pollen and nectar with wild bees due to limited foraging resources in densely urbanized areas. To assess the current bee occurrences of wild and honeybees in urbanized and protected areas of a Central European city, we focused on the ecological similarities between honeybees and wild bees. We compiled an inventory of 462 wild bee species documented since 1990 in Vienna (Austria) and conducted a survey of apiary locations in cooperation with beekeepers. We calculated apiary densities and indices for species richness, rarity, and, based on flower-visiting traits, the trait similarity between honeybees and wild bees. We found that approximately four times more honeybee colonies were kept in central Vienna in 2023 than the habitat may support. In parts of Vienna’s nature conservation areas, the number of colonies also exceeded the density of 3.5 colonies per km² recommended by the literature. Results indicate a significant spatial overlap of high apiary densities and wild bee hotspots, particularly in urban nature conservation areas like Natura 2000 protected areas. In Natura 2000 areas, the trait similarity of rare wild bee species was significantly increased, indicating a potential elevated competition between wild bees and honeybees for floral resources. This study highlights the need for spatial planning to balance urban beekeeping and wild bee conservation, recommending actions to match habitat quality to apiary densities to mitigate competitive pressures.
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Buckner, Mark A., Steven T. Hoge, and Bryan N. Danforth. "Forecasting the Effects of Global Change on a Bee Biodiversity Hotspot." Ecology and Evolution 14, no. 12 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70638.
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ABSTRACTThe Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, recognized as a global hotspot for bee biodiversity, are experiencing habitat degradation from urbanization, utility‐scale solar energy (USSE) development, and climate change. In this study, we evaluated the current and future distribution of bee diversity, assessed how protected areas safeguard bee species richness, and predicted how global change may affect bees across the region. Using Joint Species Distribution Models (JSDMs) of 148 bee species, we project changes in species distributions, occurrence area, and richness under four global change scenarios between 1971 and 2050. We evaluated the threat posed by USSE development and predicted how climate change will affect the suitability of protected areas for conservation. Our findings indicate that changes in temperature and precipitation do not uniformly affect bee richness. Lower elevation protected areas are projected to experience mean losses of up to 5.8 species, whereas protected areas at higher elevations and transition zones may gain up to 7.8 species. Areas prioritized for future USSE development have an average species richness of 4.2 species higher than the study area average, and lower priority “variance” areas have 8.2 more species. USSE zones are expected to experience declines of up to 8.0 species by 2050 due to climate change alone. Despite the importance of solitary bees for pollination, their diversity is often overlooked in land management decisions. Our results show the utility of JSDMs for leveraging existing collection records to ease the inclusion of data‐limited insect species in land management decision‐making.
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Pike, Wade A., and Clare C. Rittschof. "Honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) and wild bee resource competition: how big is this problem?" Integrative And Comparative Biology, May 30, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaf072.
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Abstract The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) has been managed by humans for centuries for honey, wax, and most recently, crop pollination. The deep history of human association with this species has enabled agricultural practices that reduce biodiversity of pollinating wild bees, largely through habitat modification. However, there is also interest in determining if Apis mellifera presence itself contributes significantly to wild bee population declines. Here we review the evidence of Apis mellifera effects on wild bees, with a particular emphasis on critically evaluating the evidence for detrimental impacts associated with resource competition. Despite accelerated research in this area, only ∼13% of resource competition studies evaluated fitness effects of Apis mellifera on wild bees, a research gap that has persisted for over 20 years. About three times as many studies have evaluated effects of Apis mellifera on wild bee community parameters, including wild bee abundance, which provides a measure of a landscape's “bee carrying capacity”. Just over 20% of these studies show a negative correlation with Apis mellifera abundance. In a novel analysis of 68 additional studies measuring bee communities for a variety of other reasons, we found negative correlations between Apis mellifera abundance and any measure of the wild bee community (richness, abundance, etc.) for nine, and the measures showing Apis mellifera impacts were varied. For example, only two of these studies showed negative correlations between Apis mellifera and wild bee abundances. In contrast, we also found similar numbers of positive relationships between Apis mellifera and various wild bee community parameters, including ten studies that showed positive relationships between Apis mellifera and wild bee abundances. Most studies (64%) showed no relationship with any factor. We found no clear pattern to explain which habitat types are more vulnerable to Apis mellifera competition, nor is the literature clear on impactful densities of managed hives in particular environment types. We discuss suggestions for future research, as well as ways the research community could clarify its conservation priorities with respect to resource competition. Resource competition between Apis mellifera and wild bees is clearly a concern in some cases. However, more work is needed to identify and predict where Apis mellifera poses a significant threat to wild bee populations. Overall, the data do not support a generalized and widespread negative relationship between Apis mellifera abundance and wild bee community health. Rather, conservation measures that reliably improve wild bee health (habitat preservation and restoration) will likely have positive effects on Apis mellifera, and vice versa.
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Monterastelli, Elisa, Alfonso Orlotti, Giulia Calderai, et al. "What’s in the bee nest holes? A single aggregation of Megachile parietina reveals and helps to fill up Eltonian shortfalls." Journal of Insect Conservation, October 14, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10841-023-00519-2.
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AbstractMegachile (Chalicodoma) parietina (Geoffroy, 1785) is a Palearctic solitary bee included in the Red List of some central European Countries. Females build durable nests, reused year after year, by mixing soil with a salivary secretion. Like for most solitary bees, the resources contained within M. parietina nests attract several other insects which exploit pollen supplies or feed on the immature brood. These associated insects have mainly been studied for mantained bees and considered for their effect on the host reproductive success.A very large nesting aggregation of M. parietina in Central Tuscany has been studied for three consecutive years. We have identified 32 associated insect species, which certainly are an underestimate of the species present. Among the identified species, only eight had been previously reported for M. parietina. All the species were classified both according to the specificity for the host taxon (Chalicodoma, Megachilidae, Anthophila, Hymenoptera, Others) and to the ecological relationship (cleptoparasites, parasitoids, predators of larvae, food commensal, scavengers, and occasional nest users).This highlighted both the richness of the ecological network within the nesting aggregation and the value of studying these nesting sites to fill Eltonian shortfalls, i.e. the deficiency in ecology knowledge, of bees and their associated fauna.Implications for insect conservation.We suggest that, besides their role in pollination, large and stable bee nesting sites increase the local insect biodiversity, and that attention should be paid to their conservation within actions aimed to support populations of wild pollinators.
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Le Féon, Violette, Mael Garrin, David Genoud, et al. "Exploring the bee fauna on the islands of Brittany (France): an initial survey reveals a remarkable species richness." Biodiversity Data Journal 13 (February 14, 2025). https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.13.e138570.
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Islands are areas where biodiversity conservation is of the utmost importance and is particularly challenging due to the isolation and vulnerability of animal and plant populations. The coastline of Brittany includes a large number of islands, which vary greatly in size, distance from the mainland, landscape composition and climate. Until recently, virtually nothing was known about the bees on these islands, but a number of studies have been carried out in recent years, allowing an initial assessment to be made. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the bee fauna of the islands of Brittany, in terms of species richness, species composition and rarity status. In total, we gathered records of 188 wild bee species on 25 continental islands, located on both the north and south coasts of Brittany. For most of the islands, we obtained only occasional data, but a few have benefitted from intensive surveys, with data collected throughout the entire flight period and over several years and in different locations and habitat types. For four islands, we considered that the current knowledge is relatively good: Groix (113 wild bee species), Houat (82 species), Hoedic (64 species) and Ouessant (57 species). In addition to the number of species, this study shows that the islands host many species that are rare at regional or national level. Our results highlight the importance of taking bees into account when managing habitats and defining protected areas in islands, in order to conserve both food resources and nesting sites for these pollinator insects.
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Kleijn, David, Rachael Winfree, Ignasi Bartomeus, et al. "Delivery of crop pollination services is an insufficient argument for wild pollinator conservation." Nature Communications 6, no. 1 (2015). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8414.
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Abstract There is compelling evidence that more diverse ecosystems deliver greater benefits to people, and these ecosystem services have become a key argument for biodiversity conservation. However, it is unclear how much biodiversity is needed to deliver ecosystem services in a cost-effective way. Here we show that, while the contribution of wild bees to crop production is significant, service delivery is restricted to a limited subset of all known bee species. Across crops, years and biogeographical regions, crop-visiting wild bee communities are dominated by a small number of common species, and threatened species are rarely observed on crops. Dominant crop pollinators persist under agricultural expansion and many are easily enhanced by simple conservation measures, suggesting that cost-effective management strategies to promote crop pollination should target a different set of species than management strategies to promote threatened bees. Conserving the biological diversity of bees therefore requires more than just ecosystem-service-based arguments.
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Horstmann, Svenja, Alistair G. Auffret, Lina Herbertsson, Björn K. Klatt, Sophie Müller, and Erik Öckinger. "Traffic intensity and vegetation management affect flower‐visiting insects and their response to resources in road verges." Journal of Applied Ecology, May 26, 2024. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14692.
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Abstract Road verges can support high densities of flowers and could therefore provide new opportunities for the conservation of flower‐visiting insects. One way of optimizing road verges for vascular plant diversity is to adjust mowing regimes, but to date it is unclear how this affects flower‐visiting insects. Furthermore, for mobile organisms like wild bees and butterflies, there is a risk that the benefit of increased habitat quality in road verges is limited by the proximity to traffic, but this is poorly studied. In a crossed study design, we separated mowing time and frequency (early summer and autumn, or only late summer) from road verge habitat classification (valuable for biodiversity according to transport authority, or regular). We did so along a gradient of traffic intensity, to investigate if a mowing regime designed to enhance plant diversity can also benefit wild bees and butterflies, and if traffic limits the conservation potential of road verges. Road verges that were mown only in late summer had higher flower densities, and there was a positive relationship between flower density and wild bee abundance and species richness. Butterfly abundance and species richness only benefitted from a late summer mowing in valuable but not in regular road verges. Traffic intensity had a substantial negative impact on abundance and species richness of wild bees and butterflies. Higher traffic intensities limited the positive relationship between plant and butterfly species richness that we observed at lower traffic intensities. Increasing width of the road verges buffered negative effects of the traffic on wild bee as well as butterfly abundances, and on wild bee species richness. Synthesis and applications. Road verges can play a valuable role for the conservation of wild bees and butterflies, but there is a need to consider both traffic intensity and resource availability when implementing management strategies. To support wild bee and butterfly diversity, we recommend actions to enhance plant species richness and flower resource availability, and to focus these conservation efforts on roads with low traffic intensity, or on wide road verges.
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Kirsch, Felix, Annika Hass, Thomas Alfert, and Catrin Westphal. "Landscape diversity, habitat connectivity, age and size determine the conservation value of limestone quarries for diverse wild bee communities." Journal of Applied Ecology, November 10, 2024. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14820.
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Abstract Abandoned and even active limestone quarries (excavation sites) can represent important secondary habitats for many species, including wild bees, associated with dry grasslands, which are threatened biodiversity hotspots in Europe. However, is not well understood how interactions between local habitat and landscape characteristics influence the value of limestone quarries for wild bees and how this could guide conservation schemes. We studied how wild bee communities in limestone quarries are affected by landscape variables (connectivity to neighbouring dry grasslands, landscape diversity), local quarry characteristics (area, age, woody vegetation cover, flowering plant species) and their interactions. We surveyed bee communities during 208 transects in 19 quarries in southern Lower Saxony, Germany. In total, we recorded 114 bee species (2360 individuals), including 35 endangered species. High flowering plant species richness positively affected bee abundance and richness. Large quarry area was important for determining the presence of endangered bee species. High levels of woody vegetation cover had a negative effect on bee abundance and richness. Bee abundance and richness can increase with quarry age, but only at sites with moderate woody vegetation cover. We found potentially positive interactions between quarry age and landscape diversity and/or habitat connectivity to neighbouring dry grasslands. In particular, high habitat connectivity ensured stable richness of endangered species in old quarries. Synthesis and applications. Observed negative effects of high woody vegetation cover on bee communities highlight the importance of local management to reduce shrub encroachment and reset successional processes in limestone quarries. Local management is particularly important in old quarries of great ecological value, where the adverse impact of high woody vegetation cover on wild bees appears to be most severe. Large and old quarries with high connectivity to neighbouring dry grasslands are especially valuable for endangered bee species. Therefore, landscape‐scale restoration and conservation of dry grasslands is the most promising approach to promote endangered bee species through enhanced habitat connectivity.
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Núñez‐Flores, Mónica, Andrés Solórzano, and Víctor Hugo Monzón. "Climatic stability and species turnover as potential drivers of latitudinal diversity gradients in Chilean wild bees." Insect Conservation and Diversity, December 22, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12798.
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Abstract This study explores the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) of wild bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) in Chile, a region with diverse climates and geographic isolation. By examining species richness patterns, this research seeks to uncover the key factors influencing these patterns in Chilean bees. We compiled and analysed occurrence records of wild bee species from five families, evaluating species richness across latitudinal gradients. To explain the LDG, we tested hypotheses such as Rapoport's effect, the mid‐domain effect (MDE), source‐sink dynamics, and the Climatic Variability Hypothesis. Additionally, we conducted cluster analyses and beta diversity assessments to identify distinct ecoregions and understand patterns of species turnover and nestedness along these gradients. Our analysis revealed a mid‐latitudinal peak in wild bee species richness around 34° S, consistent with the global bimodal latitudinal gradient for bees. The data did not support MDE predictions, implying that geometric constraints alone cannot explain these patterns. Instead, the positive correlation between latitudinal extent and latitude supports Rapoport's effect, indicating broader environmental tolerances at higher latitudes. Beta diversity analyses showed that species turnover, not nestedness, drives diversity variation along latitudinal gradients, reflecting significant species replacement across latitudes due to changing environmental conditions. Cluster analyses identified distinct wild bee groups corresponding to Northern, Central, and Southern Chile ecoregions, reinforcing substantial shifts in species composition across latitudinal bands. Our findings emphasise the importance of stable climates in supporting high bee species richness and broader environmental tolerances at higher latitudes. Understanding these patterns is vital for predicting biodiversity responses to climate change and guiding conservation strategies, especially in Chile's biodiversity hotspots with high species richness and endemism.
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Arteman, K. S., M. A. Uchoa, V. V. Alves-Junior, E. A. B. Almeida, and M. R. Maestre. "Pollination efficiency by bee guilds (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) to annatto flowers, Bixa orellana L.1753 (Bixaceae)." Brazilian Journal of Biology 85 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1590/1519-6984.292494.
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Abstract Insect’s pollination is essential in the maintaining of species abundance and diversity in the biomes. Bees are the most common pollinators of flowering plants, being their services very important in the conservation of biotope and biodiversity. The aims of this paper, are: to know the bee diversity and their population patterns over annatto flowers in the orchard; evaluate seed production in annatto plants with and without entomophilous pollination; to compare whether body size and intertegular distance of bees visiting annatto flowers correlates, and whether size of floral visitor bees in annatto influence in the pollination and productivity. During a flowering season in Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil, 240 flower buds were chosen from five different plants and divided into six groups. In each group had 40 flower buds in the pre-anthesis phase (treatments): T1 (control), T2 (natural self-pollination), T3 (Anemophilous pollination), T4 (Big bees), T5 (Medium bees) and T6 (Small bees). Bee species were identified and measured by two metrics: body size (BS) and intertegular distance (ITD) to categorize their guilds. The treatments considered in the population’s analyses were the following: species richness, constancy, frequency, dominance of each bee species, and if bee size would influence in the process of annatto pollination. The analysis of variance was determined by the Tukey and Kruskal-Wallis tests (P < 0.05) for the population parameters. Floral visitor bee species in B. orellana were divided into two groups according to the periods of their activity: 6h-9h and 14h-18h, and in four guilds, based in their body size. Bees recorded from 6h to 9h were responsible for higher efficiency in the pollination rate; represented by the following species: Bombus morio, Centris sponsa, Centris fuscata; Epicharis flava, Epicharis affinis, Epicharis analis, Euglossa sp., Eulaema nigrita, Geotrigona mombuca, Melipona quadrifasciata, Hylaeus sp., and Pseudaugochlora graminea. Seed production was higher in the control (free access to all combined floral visitor), followed by big bees, and medium bees. The two metrics: (BS and ITD) has significant positive correlation. Big body species were more successful in the pollination of B. orellana.