Analysis of the diversity of Megachilidae bees on the northern subplateau of the Iberian Peninsula
Departamento de Biología Animal, Ecología, Parasitología y Edafología. Universidad de Salamanca. Campus Miguel de Unamuno s/n. E-37071 Salamanca, España
Abstract
In the western Mediterranean, 772 species of bees in the family Megachilidae have been reported. Special emphasis has been placed on the Iberian Peninsula, where to date 218 species are known. However, few intensive studies providing information about communities of Megachilidae have been carried out. Two earlier works cite 70 species; almost one third of those known on the Peninsula. With an aim of gaining insight into the structure of the communities of Megachilidae and the factors influencing them, an analysis was made of the alpha and beta diversity of different localities in the northern subplateau. Malaise traps (black and white) were used, and 559 specimens belonging to 55 species were identified of which most exhibited a nest-holder-type nesting habit. Abundance and richness were higher for white traps, although a considerable degree of complementarity was observed with the black traps. In the study zone, diversity can be considered medium-high with a phylogenetic diversity corresponding to stable populations. Regarding the composition of the Megachilidae communities, the influence of the landscape structure, of the microhabitat, and of the colour of the trap used to collect the specimens was detected. The following are recommended: (1) the use of both black and white traps, since they show high complementarity and offer different information about community structure, (2) homogenization of the samples in comparisons among communities, owing to the influence of the color of the trap, which masks the importance of ecological factors in community structuring, and (3) the collection of samples from at least two years previous, in view of the elevated “replacement” of species observed with species richness estimators.
Keywords: complementarity, landscape unit, Malaise trap, taxonomic distinctness measures
Correspondence:
a*majodar24@yahoo.com,
btorres@usal.es,
casis@usal.es,
*Corresponding author
Editor: Robert Jeanne was editor of this paper.
Received: 29 June 2009 | Accepted: 26 March 2010 | Published: 8 December 2010
Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 10, Number 207
Dardón MJ, Torres F, Asís JD. 2010. Analysis of the diversity of Megachilidae bees on the northern subplateau of the Iberian Peninsula. Journal of Insect Science 10:207, available online: insectscience.org/10.207
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