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We analysed the wild bee community sampled from 1921 to 2018 at a nature preserve in southern Michigan, USA, to study long-term community shifts in a protected area. During an intensive survey in 1972 and 1973, Francis C. Evans detected 135 bee species. In the most recent intensive surveys conducted in 2017 and 2018, we recorded 90 species. Only 58 species were recorded in both sampling periods, indicating a significant shift in the bee community. We found that the bee community diversity, species richness and evenness were all lower in recent samples. Additionally, 64% of the more common species exhibited a more than 30% decline in relative abundance. Neural network analysis of species traits revealed that extirpation from the reserve was most likely for oligolectic ground-nesting bees and kleptoparasitic bees, whereas polylectic cavity-nesting bees were more likely to persist. Having longer phenological ranges also increased the chance of persistence in polylectic species. Further analysis suggests a climate response as bees in the contemporary sampling period had a more southerly overall distribution compared to the historic community. Results exhibit the utility of both long-term data and machine learning in disentangling complex indicators of bee population trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classification of the biological diversity on Earth is foundational to all areas of research within the natural sciences. Reliable biological nomenclatural and taxonomic systems facilitate efficient access to information about organisms and their names over time. However, broadly sharing, accessing, delivering, and updating these resources remains a persistent problem. This barrier has been acknowledged by the biodiversity data sharing community, yet concrete efforts to standardize and continually update taxonomic names in a sustainable way remain limited. High diversity groups such as arthropods are especially challenging as available specimen data per number of species is substantially lower than vertebrate or plant groups. The Terrestrial Parasite Tracker Thematic Collections Network project developed a workflow for gathering expert-verified taxonomic names across all available sources, aligning those sources, and publishing a single resource that provides a model for future endeavors to standardize digital specimen identification data. The process involved gathering expert-verified nomenclature lists representing the full taxonomic scope of terrestrial arthropod parasites, documenting issues experienced, and finding potential solutions for reconciliation of taxonomic resources against large data publishers. Although discordance between our expert resources and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility are relatively low, the impact across all taxa affects thousands of names that correspond to hundreds of thousands of specimen records. Here, we demonstrate a mechanism for the delivery and continued maintenance of these taxonomic resources, while highlighting the current state of taxon name curation for biodiversity data sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a response to a preprint version of “A re-analysis of the data in Sharkey et al.’s (2021) minimalist revision reveals that BINs do not deserve names, but BOLD Systems needs a stronger commitment to open science”, https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.28.441626v2. Meier et al. strongly criticized Sharkey et al.’s publication in which 403 new species were deliberately minimally described, based primarily on COI barcode sequence data. Here we respond to these criticisms. The following points are made: 1) Sharkey et al. did not equate BINs with species, as demonstrated in several examples in which multiple species were found to be in single BINs. 2) We reiterate that BINs were used as a preliminary sorting tool, just as preliminary morphological identification commonly sorts specimens based on color and size into unit trays; despite BINs and species concepts matching well over 90% of species, this matching does not equate to equality. 3) Consensus barcodes were used only to provide a diagnosis to conform to the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature just as consensus morphological diagnoses are. The barcode of a holotype is definitive and simply part of its cellular morphology. 4) Minimalist revisions will facilitate and accelerate future taxonomic research, not hinder it. 5) We refute the claim that the BOLD sequences of Plesiocoelus vanachterbergi are pseudogenes and demonstrate that they simply represent a frameshift mutation. 6) We reassert our observation that morphological evidence alone is insufficient to recognize species within species-rich higher taxa and that its usefulness lies in character states that are congruent with molecular data. 7) We show that in the cases in which COI barcodes code for the same amino acids in different putative species, data from morphology, host specificity, and other ecological traits reaffirm their utility as indicators of genetically distinct lineages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Wild bees comprise a diverse group of pollinators essential to healthy ecosystems and crop pollination. Despite their importance, the way in which many driving factors affect specific bees or pollinators in specific regions remains unknown. Northern New England is one such place lacking detailed study. Accordingly, we collected bees from three different landscape types for three consecutive years in northern New England. Annual, seasonal and landscape factor affects were examined. We found that season and landscape type significantly influenced the bee community. Bee abundance and species richness were highest during the warmer seasons. At the landscape scale, overall bee abundance and species richness were greatest in the organic farm landscapes and lowest in the meadow landscapes. We also examined the bee community across multiple taxonomic levels: guild, family and species. Wild bee abundance varied significantly depending on the taxonomic level analyzed. Within genera, certain species had significantly higher abundances in meadow type landscapes, whereas other species had higher abundances in the organic or the conventional farm type landscapes. These results support the need for more regionally and taxonomically specific studies on wild bees, their habitat requirements and the influence of environmental factors across agricultural and unmanaged landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many wild bee species are in global decline, yet much is still unknown about their diversity and contemporary distributions. National parks and forests offer unique areas of refuge important for the conservation of rare and declining species populations. Here we present the results of the first biodiversity survey of the bee fauna in the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF). More than a thousand specimens were collected from pan and sweep samples representing 137 species. Three species were recorded for the first time in New England and an additional seven species were documented for the first time in the state of New Hampshire. Four introduced species were also observed in the specimens collected. A checklist of the species found in the WMNF, as well as those found previously in Strafford County, NH, is included with new state records and introduced species noted as well as a map of collecting locations. Of particular interest was the relatively high abundance of Bombus terricola Kirby 1837 found in many of the higher elevation collection sites and the single specimen documented of Bombus fervidus (Fabricius 1798). Both of these bumble bee species are known to have declining populations in the northeast and are categorized as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the speciesCremnops desertor(Linnaeus, 1758) and its complicated taxonomic history are discussed. A phylogenetic distance tree, based on COI data, is used to help delimit species. The recognition ofC. alternansEnderlein, 1920 andC. malayensisBhat, 1979 is proposed. Images, distribution maps, and suggestions for further research are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new genus and species of Ichneutinae s. l., Colemanus keeleyorum Fisher, is described from the Eocene Green River Formation in Colorado, USA. Colemanus was placed on a phylogenetic hypothesis using morphological data. Using a parsimony criterion, Colemanus is placed within Proteropini (Ichneutinae s. l.). Reconstructions of well-preserved regions (mesosomal dorsum and wings) are included. A previously described species from lower Oligocene Baltic amber is transferred to Colemanus, resulting in the new combination C. contortus (Brues, 1933). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species-group of Camptothlipsis (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Agathidinae), Lingualongis, endemic to the Western Cape of South Africa is proposed and three new species are described, i.e., Camptothlipsis lingualongis, Camptothlipsis aagota and Camptothlipsis inertusursus. Phylogenetic analyses support this as a distinct monophyletic group within Camptothlipsis. he phenomenon of elongate mouthparts in Hymenoptera and the unusual multiple evolution of such within the agathidines is briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve species of Costa Rican Lytopylus are treated; these include all species reared from Lepidoptera caterpillars in Area de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica, over 32 years of caterpillar inventory, as well as two species recorded in the literature as occurring in Costa Rica. Ten new species are described, i.e., Lytopylus bradzlotnicki, Lytopylus colleenhitchcockae, Lytopylus gregburtoni, Lytopylus jessicadimauroae, Lytopylus jessiehillae, Lytopylus mingfangi, Lytopylus rebeccashapleyae, Lytopylus robpringlei, Lytopylus sandraberriosae, Lytopylus vaughntani. The following species are transferred to Lytopylus: Metriosoma flavicalcar Enderlein 1920 to Lytopylus flavicalcar comb. n.; Bassus macadamiae Briceño and Sharkey 2000 to Lytopylus macadamiae comb. n.; Metriosoma bicarinatum Enderlein 1920 to Lytopylus bicarinatum comb. n.; Metriosoma brasiliense Enderlein 1920 to Lytopylus brasiliense comb. n.; Bassus tayrona Campos 2007 to Lytopylus tayrona comb. n.; Microdus femoratus Cameron 1887 to Lytopylus femoratus comb. n.; Microdus melanocephalus Cameron 1887 to Lytopylus melanocephalus comb. n.; Bassus pastranai Blanchard 1952 to Lytopylus pastranai comb. n.; Agathis nigrobalteata Cameron 1911 to Lytopylus nigrobalteatus comb. n. Two keys to species of Lytopylus are presented, one interactive and the other static. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]