Together with specialists around the world, ITIS has completed a check list of the bee species of the world. The entire checklist (with some synonyms and subspecies) is fully integrated into the ITIS database. Options to access bee data in ITIS include:
-
Search by name from the ITIS home page.
-
Download the full ITIS database.
-
Download an ITIS Taxonomic Workbench file (includes only extant bee families).
-
Download a simplified list of just the valid bee species in a Microsoft Excel file.
Bees are a subset of the superfamily Apoidea. The bee checklist includes all members of the following extant families in the superfamily Apoidea:
-
Andrenidae -- andrenid bees, andrenids
-
Apidae -- bumble bees, euglossines, honey bees, stingless bees
-
Colletidae -- colletid bees, plasterer bees, yellow-faced bees
-
Halictidae -- halictid bees, sweat bees
-
Megachilidae -- leafcutting bees
-
Melittidae -- melittid bees, melittids
-
Stenotritidae -- stenotritid bees, stenotritids
Credits:
This five-year project was led by Michael Ruggiero, ITIS, United States.
Principal scientific contributors to the World Bee Checklist project include John S. Ascher, American Museum of Natural History, United States; Connal Eardley, Plant Protection Research Institute, South Africa; Terry Griswold, U.S. Department of Agriculture, United States; Gabriel Melo, Federal University of Parana, Brazil; Andrew Polaszek, Natural History Museum, United Kingdom; Osamu Tadauchi, University of Kyushu, Japan; Ken Walker, Museum Victoria, Australia; Natapot Warrit, Smithsonian Institution, United States; and Paul Williams, Natural History Museum, United Kingdom.
Principal technical contributors to the project include David Nicolson, U.S. Geological Survey, United States; John Pickering, Discover Life and University of Georgia, United States; and David Remsen, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Denmark.
Additional credits can be found on the Discover Life website here.
Major supporters of the project were the U.S. based National Biological Information Infrastructure, a broad, collaborative program that provided increased access to data and information on the nation’s biological resources and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Copenhagen, Denmark, which is dedicated to making global biodiversity data accessible anywhere in the world.
