The Afrotropical Bees

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The Afrotropical Bees written by Connal
Eardley Presented by Laurence Packer Photos by
Dino Martins, Ken Walker Nicolas
Vereecken
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Area covered Africa south of the Sahara desert
and East Indian Ocean islands, not Yemen
South of white line
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Major collections Iziko South African Museum,
Cape Town, South Africa Transvaal Museum,
Pretoria, South Africa Albany Museum,
Granhamstown, South Africa Agricultural Research
Council, Pretoria, South Africa National Museums
of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
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Bee diversity spp Short-tongued bees
Colletidae 201 Andrenidae
24 Halictidae 933 Melittidae
63 Long-tongued bees Megachilidae
851 Apidae 721 Total number of
species 2793 From South Africa
1273spp. Reasons Diverse climate and
vegetation 4 resident bee taxonomists,
rest of Africa 0 taxonomists
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Taxonomic coverage Colletidae 4 genera, 2
revised, 1 being studied Andrenidae 4 genera,
all revised Halictidae 19 genera, 10 revised, 2
being studied Melittidae 10 genera, all
revised Megachilidae 36 genera, 3 revised, 1
being studied Apidae 35 genera, 31 revised
southern Africa remaining 4 revised southern
Africa only All revised genera have keys, not
revised no key LUCID key to genera (possibly
subgenera) in preparation
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Catalogue A comprehensive catalogue giving All
valid species names All invalid names Reference
to every literature citing for every name Type
information (holotype, lectotype, syntype) Type
depository Type locality (country) Synonymies A
ssociated species, food plants, parasites,
hosts Country from which recorded Hopefully
submitted to Zootaxa this year, but not freely
available
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Photographs Unfortunately few photographs
available but hopefully this will change in the
future - trying to equipment
Database Iziko South African Museum complete Tra
nsvaal Museum part Albany Museum complete Ag
ricultural Research Council complete end
2008 National Museums of Kenya part ?
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Literature All literature in hard copy, not for
loan 90 of African bee literature digital,
available
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DNA bar coding bees 1 bee taxonomist in Africa,
but several interest (in East, Central and West
Africa) Bee taxonomist uses morphology, no
molecular skills Material collected before 1990
killed in ethyl acetate, after 1990 killed in
potassium cyanide Willingness to participate and
collect for Global project, started with
Scrapter
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The end