Barcoding of the wild bees in Cyprus

Abstract

Bees are considered to be one of the most significant taxa due to the pollination services they provide to key cultivated crops and natural ecosystems. There are approximately 2000 bee species in Europe, with southern Europe having the highest endemic species richness. In Cyprus 369 wild bee species have been recorded, 21 of which are endemic. With bee populations facing a global decline, bee identification plays a significant role in conservation efforts. The main objective of this study was to evaluate DNA barcoding as a molecular tool for the identification of the wild bees of Cyprus. Using the COI gene, 25 species have been identified with relatively high accuracy. The main advantage of the tool was the identification of more species compared to the morphospecies that were distinguished based on morphological identification. However, the barcode for some specimens resulted in high similarity to more than one species, such as Lasioglossum malachurum with L. subhirtum and Halictus quadricinctus with H. brunnescens, and therefore did not result in a complete identification. Overall, results suggest that DNA barcoding is a reliable tool for wild bee identification, and can form the basis for a Cyprus wild bee molecular identification database, in combination with reliable morphological identification of certain taxa. However, further work is needed to link species morphological identities to DNA barcodes.