The Australian species of the genus Coelioxys Latreille are revised. Six species are recognized: Coelioxys albolineata Cockerell, 1905; Coelioxys froggatti Cockerell, 1911; Coelioxys reginae Cockerell, 1905; Coelioxys weinlandi Schulz, 1904 and two new species: Coelioxys julia sp. n. and Coelioxys tasmaniana sp. n. Three names are synonymized: Coelioxys biroi Friese, 1909 syn. n. and Coelioxys albolineata darwiniensis Cockerell, 1929 syn. n. under Coelioxys albolineata, and Coelioxys victoriae Rayment, 1935 syn. n. under Coelioxys froggatti. Species descriptions and redescriptions, illustrations, distribution maps, floral records and a key to both sexes of all species are provided., Léo Correia da Rocha-Filho., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Meaningful ecological studies on insect communities require sampling protocols that take into consideration temporal fluctuations in abundance and species composition. Bees with their specific requirements for nutrition and nesting are good indicators of landscape structure and overall biodiversity, provided the ecological and seasonal patterns they show are taken into consideration. The present two year study traced the ecological and seasonal patterns on 2 km2 of a southern slope in the Swiss Alps, ranging from 1150 to 1550 m above sea level. The study area consisted mainly of grassland under different regimes, mostly hay meadows and pastures. By direct netting at five monthly intervals in each year a total of 247 bee species were recorded. This comprehensive sampling scheme identified one of the most diverse bee faunas in Central and Northern Europe, consisting of a statistically estimated 280 species. Most species were rare with 14.6% represented by a single individual. Ecological analysis of the bee community showed that the primitively eusocial species were over represented among the abundant species and the parasitic species among the rarest.
Both abundance and species richness were subject to marked seasonal variations. A substantial turnover in species composition as well as changes in ecological patterns were observed. More than 25% of all species were recorded in only one of the two years, in particular many of the parasitic species. Singletons accounted for a higher proportion when individual years rather than the pooled data were analysed. All these findings underline the importance of season-long sampling and sampling over more than one year if bees are to be used as indicators in ecological and studies on bee communities.
Colletes anchusae Noskiewicz, 1924 and C. wolfi Kuhlmann, 1999 (Colletidae) are closely related bee species with vicariant distributions, the former occurring in east and southeast Europe and Turkey, the latter restricted to the Italian peninsula. Microscopical analysis of scopal pollen revealed that in Europe both species are monolectic collecting pollen exclusively from flowers of Cynoglottis barrelieri (All.) Vural & Kit Tan (Boraginaceae). In Turkey, C. anchusae possibly visits also Cynoglottis chetikiana Vural & Kit Tan. The distributions of the two bee species and of Cynoglottis coincide. The females of both Colletes species are equipped with stout, curved bristles on their foretarsi used for scraping pollen out of the narrow flower tube of Cynoglottis. Compared to other European species of Colletes the foretarsi of C. anchusae and C. wolfi are shortened, presumably an adaptation to the short corolla tube of their host plant.
Pollinating insects are important and therefore, it is important to be able to assess and monitor changes in their abundance. Consequently, it is essential that the methods used to collect data have some level of precision and are accurate. In the present study, two commonly used methods: colour pan-traps and sweep netting along transects, were compared. A total of 1775 specimens of 120 species of four insect families were caught in twelve clear-cuts in southern Sweden. Overall, Lepturinae (Cerambycidae; 5 species) and Cetoniidae (Scarabaeidae; 2) were trapped in larger numbers by pan-traps and Syrphidae (62) and Apoidea, both social (10) and solitary (41), by sweep netting. The catches of none of the above groups of insects by the two methods were correlated. These results show that the composition of catches of the two methods are very different, which has implications when choosing a method for sampling or monitoring and comparing and analysing published data.