Updating the list of flower-visiting bees, hoverflies and wasps in the central atolls of Maldives, with notes on land-use effects
Citation
Biella P (2022). Updating the list of flower-visiting bees, hoverflies and wasps in the central atolls of Maldives, with notes on land-use effects. Version 1.3. Biodiversity Data Journal. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/yrksyh accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-08-31.Description
Maldives islands host a unique biodiversity, but their integrity is threatened by climate change and impacting land-uses (e.g. cemented or agricultural areas). As pollinators provide key services for the ecosystems and for the inhabitants, it is crucial to know which pollinators occur in the islands, to characterize their genetic identity, and to understand which plants they visit and the size of the human impact. Given that no significant faunistic surveys of Hymenoptera were published for the country in more than 100 years and that Syrphidae were only partly investigated, we sampled islands in the central part of the Maldives country (Faafu and Daahlu atolls) and hand-netted flower-visiting bees, wasps and hoverflies (Hymenoptera: Anthophila, Crabronidae, Sphecidae, Vespidae, Scoliidae, and Diptera: Syrphidae). Overall, we found 21 species; 76.4% of the collected specimens were Anthophila (bees), 12.7% belonged to several families of wasps and 10.8% of individuals were Syrphidae. It seems that one third of species are new for the Maldives, based on the published literature. Human land-uses seem to shape the local pollinator fauna since the assemblages of bees, wasps and hoverflies from urbanized and agricultural islands differed from those in resort and natural ones. These pollinators visited 30 plant species in total, but some invasive plants hosted the highest number of flower visitor species. Biogeographically, this pollinating fauna is mostly shared with Sri Lanka and India. Genetically, the used marker hinted for a unique fauna in relation to the rest of the distribution ranges in most cases, although generally within the level of intraspecific genetic variation. This study significantly contributes to increasing the knowledge on the pollinator diversity and genetic identity in Maldives islands also considering the important implications for the islands land-use and the role of invasive plants. This study will be pivotal for future pollination studies and biodiversity conservation efforts in the region.Sampling Description
Study Extent
daily captures on 11 islandsSampling
entomological netsMethod steps
- Morphological identification
Taxonomic Coverages
-
Apoidearank: superfamily
-
Syrphidaerank: family
-
Vespoidearank: superfamily
Geographic Coverages
The Republic of Maldives, Faafu and Daahlu atolls
Bibliographic Citations
Contacts
Paolo Biellaoriginator
position: Research fellow
University of Milano-Bicocca
Paolo Biella
metadata author
position: Research fellow
University of Milano-Bicocca
Paolo Biella
user
position: Research fellow
University of Milano-Bicocca
email: paolo.biella@unimib.it
Paolo Biella
administrative point of contact
position: Research fellow
University of Milano-Bicocca