in Sri Lanka - Ministry of Environment

The Taxonomy and Conservation Status of the Bees(Hymenoptera: Apoidea) in Sri LankaW. A. Inoka P. Karunaratne and Jayanthi P. EdirisingheDepartment of Zoology, University of Peradenya, PeradeniyaIntroductionBees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Apiformes) are the most important pollinators of flowering plantsincluding agricultural crops resulting in fruits and seed production. Most of the world’s cropsare pollinated by bees comprising more than 20,000 identified species and a similar number ofspecies awaiting identification. The distribution of bees depends on climate and their ability todisperse to suitable areas (Michener, 2000). The highest bee diversity has been recorded fromwarm temperate desert regions of the world.The earliest work on bees of Sri Lanka dates back to the British Colonial period where Dalla Torre(1896) listed 17 species of bees and Bingham (1897) recorded and described 42 species of beesfrom Sri Lanka. During the post-colonial period Sakagami and Ebmer (1987), Schwarz (1990),Sakagami (1978 & 1991), Sakagami, Ebmer and Tadauchi (1996 and 1998), Snelling (1980)and Baker (1996) worked on bees of Sri Lanka. The Smithsonian - Sri Lanka Insect Surveyconducted from 1969 through 1975 up to 1987 resulted in the identification of several more beespecies and led to several publications. Duplicate specimens of bees identified through thissurvey have been deposited in two locations: the Sri Lanka National Museums, Colombo (58spp.) and in the Department of Zoology, University of Peradeniya (42 spp.). Through a survey ofpublished literature on bees of Sri Lanka, Wijesekara (2001) compiled an annotated list of beesof Sri Lanka documenting 132 bee species belonging to 25 genera and 4 families. The landmark publication on the ‘Bees of the world’ by Michener (2000) includes 29 genera and severalsubgenera of bees from Sri Lanka. Later surveys conducted by local scientists resulted in theupdating of the checklist of bees of Sri Lanka with the addition of 5 new genera and 15 newspecies including one species new to Science (Karunaratne, Edirisinghe & Pauly, 2005).TaxonomyDifficulty in accessing the published keys and descriptions of selected bee groups in theregion and the lack of an expert identified reference bee collection in the country are the majorimpediments to the advancement of bee taxonomy. Further, lack of cooperation between beespecialists in the region and the absence of a forum for exchanging scientific/research findingsare also major constraints faced by bee taxonomists in Sri Lanka. As a result there are manymorpho-species awaiting proper identification. The need for revising the bee taxa of Sri Lankais a major requirement as evidenced by the recent upgrading of the subfamily Nomiinae in SriLanka (Karunaratne, Edirisinghe & Pauly, 2005) that resulted in 11 genera of bees that werepreviously classified under 3 genera.DistributionField studies conducted in the recent past have shown that most bee species are distributedacross a range of altitudes while few species are restricted to specific habitats above 900 m.They are Homalictus singhalensis, Lasioglossum (Sudila) bidentatum, L. (Sudila) alphenum,20