Survey of wild bees in central Alberta – 2018

During 2018, Alberta Environment and Parks conducted an inventory of bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) in central Alberta, Canada with focus on the Parkland Natural Region of the province. Blue vane traps were installed at 31 locations. Twenty-six sites were in or immediately adjacent to the Parkland Natural Region, two in the Grassland Natural Region, and three in the Boreal Forest Natural Region. Each trap was deployed for approximately two weeks within each summer month (May-August). Traps were usually situated where a variety of habitat types (forest, grass, water, agricultural) were in close proximity (<1 km), and usually on lands designated for habitat preservation such as parks, natural areas, and private conservation properties. The mean trapping duration over the summer at each site was 1275.2 hours with a range of 696-2547 hours. Survey results included 8808 bumble bees (Apidae: Bombus) of 22 species, which have been reported on elsewhere (https://data.canadensys.net/ipt/resource?r=bduc-bombus-specimens). We report here on the wild, non-Bombus species collected through this sampling program. A total of 4626 wild bees of 5 families (Andrenidae, Apidae, Colletidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae) and 25 genera were collected. The most common among the 82 identified species were Lasioglossum zonulum (n=1586), Melissodes confusus (n=1114) and Anthophora terminalis (n=629) which collectively made up 72.0% of specimens collected. L. zonulum and A. terminalis were the most widespread species (both at 29/31 sites), followed by L. leucozonium and M. confusus (25 and 23 sites, respectively). Twenty-three species were found at only a single site.