Diversity and Resource Use Patterns of Bees and Flies that Visit Flowers in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin

Abstract

We analyse the spatio-temporal diversity patterns of five families of bees (Andrenidae, Apidae, Colletidae, Halictidae and Megachilidae) and two families of flower-visiting flies (Bombyliidae and Syrphidae) in the Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB). Pollination by insects is one of the most important ecological processes in an ecosystem, maintaining plant populations and crop production. Knowing the diversity and resource use patterns of pollinators allows the design of conservation and management strategies. We collected 2310 specimens of 169 species of the 7 families of insects; 1331 plant-insect interactions were recorded in which 39 plant species were involved. We compared the insect diversity and plants visited of four localities within the CCB, considering species diversity of the plants visited by each group of insects by season and locality. More plant species were visited during the rainy season, but three insect families were richer during the dry season. Bombyliidae was the family with more flower visits recorded (426), but Apidae (particularly Apis mellifera) was the group that visited more plant species (Apidae 31 spp., A. mel- lifera 20 spp.). The abundance of Bombyliidae and the diversity of plants visited by Syrphidae, Megachilidae and Halictidae increases the relevance as pollinators of these groups. We identified the plant species more frequently visited in both sea- sons. Finally, we discuss how this knowledge can be applied in pollinator conserva- tion strategies specifically in the CCB.