Taxonomic revision of the Megachilidae (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of southern Africa (2007) and of the Afrotropical Apoidea (2012)
Internship details
The bee family Megachilidae (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) ranks among the most diverse and most abundant bee taxa in Africa. Also they are important pollinators for crops and wild plants, which creates a big demand for identification services.
J. Pasteels, a Belgian citizen, revised the Megachilidae in 1965 (PASTEELS, J. J. 1965. Revision des Megachilidae (Hymenoptera Apoidea) De L’Afrique Noire. Les Genres Creightoniella, Chalicodoma et Megachile (s. str.). Musee Royal de L’Afrique Centrale- Tervuren, Belgique Annales, Serie In-8- Sciences Zoologiques 137, 1-563). This is an outstanding piece of work dealing with over 500 valid species, but his work has become dated. Also Pasteels did this work when he was old and his eyes were failing, and he missed some important features. New material of many species has been collected and this will help make decisions where he was unable to do so. It is necessary to rerevise the genus.
The Royal Museum for Central Africa and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences both have historical collections that are invaluable to this project. They include, inter alia, type material and other material identified by Pasteels.
This proposal is a request for funds to travel to Belgium to study the material in the two above-mentioned institutes, so that the findings can be incorporated into the planned taxonomic revision. Because of the size of the resulting publication, it will be attempted to be published in Zootaxa, an electronic journal of taxonomy.
