Apoidea of the collections of Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and Toulon Museums of Natural History (France)

Abstract

Many insect species have shown dramatic declines over the last decades, as a result of man-related environmental changes. Many species which were formerly widespread are now rare. To document this trend with evidence, old records of collected specimens are vital. We provide here the data on 9752 bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) specimens hosted in several museums of south-east France: Musée des Confluences in Lyon, Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Marseille, Muséum d’Aix-en-Provence and the Muséum Départemental du Var in Toulon. Most of the specimens (9256) come from France and include data on 552 named species. For most of these specimens, the geographical location, including geographical coordinates, is based on the locality (town or village) where they were collected. The specimens were captured from the beginning of the nineteenth century to 2018. The identifications of 1377 specimens, mainly belonging to the genus Bombus, are considered reliable, as these were performed or been checked since 2009. All the other reported identifications are the original ones given by the original collectors.

Hoverflies of the Timon-David collection (Diptera, Syrphidae)

“…The aim of the present paper is to record the important hoverfly collection hosted at the Marseille Natural History Museum, contributing to the endeavour to document the past distribution of pollinators in France ( Meunier et al 2023 , Zakardjian et al 2023 ).…”