2026/07/14 by Matteo Annessi, Alessandra Riccieri, Carlo Polidori +2 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Insect and Pesticide Research #Plant and animal studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.3897/bdj.14.e193040
openalex publication_date 2026/07/14 · openalex created_date 2026/07/15 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Cleptoparasitic bees represent a poorly studied yet ecologically important component of wild bee communities, responding sensitively to environmental heterogeneity and reflecting local wild bee diversity. Despite representing approximately 13% of bee species globally, significant knowledge gaps remain regarding their species distribution, taxonomy, and conservation status, particularly within the Mediterranean region, which is recognized as a global hotspot for bee diversity. This work provides a faunistic survey of cleptoparasitic bees collected in rural protected areas within the province of Rome (Latium, central Italy), employing an integrative taxonomic approach combining morphological identification and DNA barcoding (COI-5P gene). A total of 417 individuals belonging to 44 species from 10 genera and three families were collected. Five species are newly recorded for Latium. A total of 98 COI-5P sequences were generated and deposited in BOLD and GenBank, including the first COI-5P record for Nomada nausicaa Schmiedeknecht, 1882. The integrative approach proved particularly valuable for resolving challenging identifications and for highlighting some taxonomic issues — particularly within the genus Melecta — that clearly require further molecular and morphological studies. Our findings provide new distributional data on cleptoparasitic bees in central Italy and expand the availability of COI-5P sequences in public molecular databases.