GTI capacity development project(s) of Boevé Jean-Luc, Pauly Alain and Dekoninck Wouter
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Training course on Hymenoptera and other pollinators in Tanzania

Project details

  • Years

    2017 and 2019

  • Country

    Tanzania

  • Studied organism

    Arthropods - Insects: Animalia – Arthropoda – Insecta – Hymenoptera

  • Organising institute (Belgium)

    Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

  • Partner institute (South)

College of African Wildlife Management, Mweka (CAWM)

There is increasing global concern regarding pollinator population declines related to land use intensification, climate change and poor pollinator management. However, Hymenoptera of Tanzania are poorly studied and remain underrepresented in collections. High confidence identifications are crucial for ecological and pollination studies. In Tanzania, the situation is particularly exacerbated by lack of expertise and financial resources.

In 2017, RBINS was contacted by the College of African Wildlife Management in Mweka (CAWM) to give a training in the framework of the project entitled “Monitoring pollinators in Tanzania“, for which a proposal was submitted to the JRS Biodiversity Foundation. Due to a lack of local taxonomists, the promotor of this project asked the RBINS experts J.-L. Boevé, A. Pauly and W. Dekoninck to join efforts to manage training sessions on systematics of pollinators. RBINS has a large international expertise on Hymenoptera, an important group of pollinators including bees, wasps, ants and sawflies.

Therefore, this GTI project aims to provide field trainings (two-three weeks) on bees and other pollinators for up to 25 participants, including project team members, some students, lab technicians as well as other staff members from collaborating institutions.

Files and additional information

Useful keys for the identification of bee genera and species are available in the seventh (English) and ninth (French) volume of the series Abc Taxa:

 Volume 7: Eardley, C., Kuhlmann, M., and Pauly, A. (2010). The Bee Genera and Subgenera of sub-Saharan Africa. Abc Taxa 7, i-vi, 1-138

 Volume 9: Eardley, C., Kuhlmann, M., and Pauly, A. (2010). Les genres et sous-genres d’abeilles de l’Afrique subsaharienne. Abc Taxa 9, i-vii, 1-143

Scientific papers

Pauly, A., Lasway, J. V., Mijai, I., Mshana, I., and Njovu, H. K. (2019). Collecting bees on Mount Meru in Tanzania and the discovery of a new cleptoparasitic species of Lasioglossum (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Halictidae). Belg. J. Entomol. 84, 1–18. http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/belgian-journal-entomology-2019