Floral hosts of leaf-cutter bees (Megachilidae) in a biodiversity hotspot revealed by pollen DNA metabarcoding of historic specimens.

ABSTRACT: South Africa is a megadiverse country with three globally recognised biodiversity hotspots within its borders. Bees in particular show high diversity and endemism in the western part of the country. Not much is currently known about the floral host preferences of indigenous bees in South Africa, with data only available from observational studies. Pollen metabarcoding provides provenance information by utilising DNA analyses instead of floral visitation and traditional microscopic identification to identify pollinator food plants, which can be time consuming and imprecise. In this study, we sampled pollen from leaf-cutter bees (Megachilidae) specimens maintained in a historic insect collection (National Collection of Insects, South Africa) that were originally collected from two florally i

SUBMITTER: Gous A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7819603 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature