Hymenoptera and biodiversity

Abstract

Increasing attention has been focused on biodiversity in recent years, based on a number of arguments to justify the conservation of the world's flora and fauna. Hymenoptera species (bees, wasps, ants and sawflies) form a major component of diversity and are vital in sustaining diversity in other groups. They are major plant pollinators, seed dispersers, parasitoids and predators of other arthropods (and hence important in biological control). This volume tackles an important subject and concentrates on three key issues: how species of Hymenoptera affect diversity in other organisms; whether Hymenoptera is a group prone to extinction and the consequences if Hymenoptera species are differentially removed from terrestrial ecosystems.