Species diversity of wild bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) in parks of Kyiv

In: Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Series: Biology, Band 78, Heft 2, S. 40-49

Abstract

Wild bee populations – important pollinators of many plants – are threatened with extinction due to reduced food resources, destruction of
nesting sites and habitat fragmentation.

The aim of this study is to determine the species diversity of wild bees in the parks of Kyiv. During the 2012-2017 spring-summer seasons a comprehensive study of the species composition and diversity of wild bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) was investigated. 115 wild bee species of 6 families and 34 genera have been found. Only 39 species among them were found in all parks and the common species are noted: Colletes cunicularius, Hylaeus communis, Andrena flavipes, Evylaeus calceatus, E. malachurus, E. politus, Anthophora plumipes, Bombus lucorum, B. terrestris, B. lapidarius, B. pascuorum. The proportions of species within each ecological group stay constant, except for the small decrease in oligolectic species. In all parks the ground-nesting bees are dominated. Bees that build nests in a different substrate (tree cavities, hollow plant stems, empties, holes, walls of buildings, and like) make up only 20 %. In general, on the territories of urban parks we have registered wild bees on the plants of more than 100 species from the families Asteraceaе, Fabaceaе, Lamiaceae, Rosaceaе. It should be noted, that ornamental flowering vegetation plays a significant role in wild bees nutrition in the city conditions. In some city parks we have found three species of wild bees that included in the Red Book of Ukraine: Bombus argillaceus, Xylocopa valga and Andrena chrysopus.

The results of our study show that city parks are important for the conservation of wild bee populations, and the main conditions for this are the availability of flower sources and nesting sites.