A synopsis of the Bee occurrence data of northern Tanzania

Julius V Lasway; Neema R Kinabo; Rudolf F Mremi; Emanuel H Martin; Oliver C Nyakunga; John J Sanya; Gration M Rwegasira; Nicephor Lesio; Hulda Gideon; Alain Pauly; Connal Eardley; Marcell K Peters; Andrew T Peterson; Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter; Henry K Njovu

doi:10.3897/BDJ.9.e68190

A synopsis of the Bee occurrence data of northern Tanzania

Biodivers Data J. 2021 Aug 17:9:e68190. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.9.e68190. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Wildlife Management, College of African Wildlife Management, Mweka, P.O. Box 3031, Moshi, Tanzania Department of Wildlife Management, College of African Wildlife Management, Mweka, P.O. Box 3031 Moshi Tanzania.
² Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland 97074 Würzburg Germany.
³ Department of Wildlife Tourism, College of African Wildlife Management, Mweka, P.O. Box 3031, Moshi, Tanzania Department of Wildlife Tourism, College of African Wildlife Management, Mweka, P.O. Box 3031 Moshi Tanzania.
⁴ Department of Crop Science and Hortculture, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3005, Morogoro, Tanzania Department of Crop Science and Hortculture, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3005 Morogoro Tanzania.
⁵ Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, P.O. Box 661, Arusha, Tanzania Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, P.O. Box 661 Arusha Tanzania.
⁶ Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), P.O. Box 4302, Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), P.O. Box 4302, Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road Dar es Salaam Tanzania.
⁷ Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), O.D. Taxonomy & Phylogeny, Rue Vautier 29, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), O.D. Taxonomy & Phylogeny, Rue Vautier 29, B-1000 Brussels Belgium.
⁸ Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management,, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2520 South Africa.
⁹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, United States of America Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas Lawrence, KS United States of America.
¹⁰ Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, P.O. Box 70919, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, P.O. Box 70919 Dar Es Salaam Tanzania.

Abstract

Background: Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila) are the most important group of pollinators with about 20,507 known species worldwide. Despite the critical role of bees in providing pollination services, studies aiming at understanding which species are present across disturbance gradients are scarce. Limited taxononomic information for the existing and unidentified bee species in Tanzania make their conservation haphazard. Here, we present a dataset of bee species records obtained from a survey in nothern Tanzania i.e. Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions. Our findings serve as baseline data necessary for understanding the diversity and distribution of bees in the northern parts of the country, which is a critical step in devising robust conservation and monitoring strategies for their populations.

New information: In this paper, we present information on 45 bee species belonging to 20 genera and four families sampled using a combination of sweep-netting and pan trap methods. Most species (27, ~ 60%) belong to the family Halictidae followed by 16 species (35.5%) from the family Apidae. Megachilidae and Andrenidae were the least represented, each with only one species (2.2%). Additional species of Apidae and Megachilidae sampled during this survey are not yet published on Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), once they will be available on GBIF, they will be published in a subsequent paper. From a total of 953 occurrences, highest numbers were recorded in Kilimanjaro Region (n = 511), followed by Arusha (n = 410) and Manyara (n = 32), but this pattern reflects the sampling efforts of the research project rather than real bias in the distributions of bee species in northern Tanzania.

Keywords: Tanzania; agriculture; bee pollinator; distribution; disturbance gradient; grazing; species diversity.

Julius V. Lasway, Neema R. Kinabo, Rudolf F. Mremi, Emanuel H. Martin, Oliver C. Nyakunga, John J. Sanya, Gration M. Rwegasira, Nicephor Lesio, Hulda Gideon, Alain Pauly, Connal Eardley, Marcell K. Peters, Andrew T. Peterson, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter, Henry K. Njovu.