An annotated checklist of the bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) of San Diego County, California

The Mediterranean and desert regions of Southern California include some of the most diverse bee faunas (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) in the world. Due to human development, large portions of Mediterranean scrub and desert ecosystems in Southern California have been destroyed or profoundly degraded. This trend of habitat destruction and degradation is expected to continue as population pressures continue to grow and as Earth’s climate changes. This ongoing inventory project seeks to document all the bee species that occur within the bounds of San Diego County. Our aim is to not only make this information available for conservation managers and scientists, but also to provide a foundation for future efforts to investigate how bee diversity is affected by anthropogenic climate change in San Diego.