Updating the list of flower-visiting bees, hoverflies and wasps in the central atolls of Maldives, with notes on land-use effects

Paolo Biella

doi:10.15468/yrksyh

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 2023-09-26.

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 islands

Sampling

entomological nets

Method steps

Morphological identification

Taxonomic Coverages

Apoidea
rank: superfamily
Syrphidae
rank: family
Vespoidea
rank: superfamily

Geographic Coverages

The Republic of Maldives, Faafu and Daahlu atolls

Bibliographic Citations

Contacts

Paolo Biella
originator
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