Thomas James Wood

Naturalis Biodiversity Center | NCB

Anthropic-related pollinator decline is a major challenge. To ensure that we characterize the underlying ecological processes and implement appropriate conservation measures, it is important to consider multiple dimensions of diversity. Here, we use a rare dataset of bee communities spanning over 100 years (1910–2019) in northern France, an area su...

The purpose of this application, under Article 75.5 of the Code, is to conserve the current usage of the specific name Andrena ovatula (Kirby, 1802) by setting aside all previous types and designating a neotype for Melitta ovatula. The name Andrena ovatula has been used as the senior name for what is a complex of species for more than 100 years. Th...

Anthophora onosmarum is a poorly known bee species described from the Caucasus (Georgia). New fieldwork has revealed that the species is present in Bulgaria and Greece, and is also widespread across Turkey, predominantly on the Anatolian plateau. New behavioural data shows that A. onosmarum is likely narrowly oligolectic on the plant genus Onosma (...

A new species of bumble bee-mimicking brood parasitic bee, Tetralonioidella mimetica Orr & Zhu, sp. nov., is described from China. The systematic placement of this species was initially challenging but was resolved using a combination of phylogenomic and COI barcode analyses, which strongly support the new species as a member of the genus Tetraloni...

Controlling crop pests while conserving pollinators is challenging, particularly when prophylactically applying broad-spectrum, systemic insecticides such as neonicotinoids. Systemic insecticides are often used in conventional agriculture in commercial settings, but the conditions that optimally balance pest management and pollination are poorly un...

The high mountains of the Western Himalayas have an understudied entomofauna due to their isolation and access issues. This lack of knowledge is true also for the bee fauna of this region which has been only occasionally and sporadically studied. Consequently, a visit to the region of Ladakh (Kashmir) in northern India produced several remarkable r...

Integrative taxonomy of a new species of a bumble bee-mimicking brood parasitic bee, Tetralonioidella mimetica (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Apidae), investigated through phylogenomics. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 97: 755-780. https://doi. Abstract A new species of bumble bee-mimicking brood parasitic bee, Tetralonioidella mimetica Orr & Zhu, sp. nov....

India is a large country in Asia, and covers the transition zone between the Palaearctic and Indomalayan biogeographic realms, with influences from both. Present in India are members of the genus Andrena, an enormous bee genus distributed predominantly throughout the Holarctic, with the greatest Indian diversity in the Himalayan region due to its P...

A wide network of para-taxonomists and citizen science initiatives in Belgium has allowed to intensify contemporary targeted field surveys focusing on elusive/rarer species and their (threatened) habitats, but also on a more widespread monitoring of common species. This has resulted in 24 wild bee species recorded for the first time in Belgium, the...

The genus Andrena is the second largest genus of bees, and is undergoing a period of concentrated study that has resulted in the description or recognition of almost 200 additional species during the last decade. This process is far from complete, and substantial revisions are required even in well-studied regions; this present work contributes to...

Recent molecular phylogenetic studies have greatly improved our understanding of the higher classification of the bee genus Andrena Fabricius. Based on these findings, we herein describe three new, early-diverging western Palaearctic subgenera of the genus: Andrena (Warnckandrena) Pisanty subgen. nov., A. (Uncandrena) Pisanty subgen. nov., and A. (...

Iraq is a large country in the Middle East region that borders both Turkey and Iran, countries known to host two of the largest bee faunas globally, as expected for a group of insects that favour dry to Mediterranean climates. Despite this huge regional species richness, the bee fauna of Iraq is chronically understudied and poorly known, both in re...

The fundamental value of universal nomenclatural systems in biology is that they enable unambiguous scientific communication. However, the stability of these systems is threatened by recent discussions asking for a fairer nomenclature, raising the possibility of bulk revision processes for "inappropriate" names. It is evident that such proposals co...

The discourse around the complexity and memorability of scientific names versus the simplicity and accessibility of vernacular names is a long- standing one, frequently raised by naturalists, science communicators,and conservationists. Some of these professionals have advocated for the adoption of an alternative, unregulated naming system that heav...

A bee specimen identified as Anthophora planca Pérez, 1895, from France, was discovered in collections of Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. This male specimen presents a morphology that does not conform to any of the Anthophora Latreille, 1803 species known from France, or indeed from Europe. After careful examination, it cannot be identified as Antho...

Bees are important actors in terrestrial ecosystems and are recognised for their prominent role as pollinators. In the Iberian Peninsula, approximately 1,100 bee species are known, with nearly 100 of these species being endemic to the Peninsula. A reference collection of DNA barcodes, based on morphologically identified bee specimens, representing...

The fastidiosissimus species-group of Stenodynerus de Saussure, 1863 is revised in Western Europe and North Africa, combining morphological data and DNA barcoding. Six species are recognized: S. difficilis (Morawitz, 1867) stat. resurr. (= S. fastidiosissimus auct.), S. fastidiosissimus (de Saussure, 1855), S. laborans (Costa, 1882) stat. resurr.,...

Asia is the world's largest continent and comprises most of the Holarctic biogeographic region. The genus Andrena is principally distributed through the Holarctic, but it remains understudied in Asia. The subgenus Cnemidandrena Hedicke, 1933 is distributed across Asia with some species reaching south to the Tibetan Plateau. However, some southern m...

We reconstruct the phylogeny of the most speciose genus of cuckoo bees, genus Nomada Scopoli, 1770, using 221 species from throughout its distribution, yet with a strong emphasis on the West Palearctic. For phylogenetic reconstruction, we sequenced ultraconserved elements, allowing robust phylogenetic estimates with both concatenation and coalescen...

Italy lies at the centre of the Mediterranean basin and has a large bee fauna due to its mixture of Mediterranean and temperate habitats, and infl uences from all cardinal directions. This is true also for the genus Andrena; however, studies to date have been fragmentary, and there has been no focused critical revision of the entire fauna. Here the...

North-western Africa has a large Andrena fauna, but parts of the country away from coastal areas remain poorly studied, and confusion persists as to the identity of certain taxa due to the long history of study combined with imperfectly examined type material. New fieldwork, genetic barcoding, and study of museum material has substantially improved...

Background Within the Hymenoptera, bees are notable for their relationship with flowering plants, being almost entirely dependent on plant pollen and nectar. Though functionally herbivorous, as a result of their role as pollinators, bees have received comparatively little attention as models for insect herbivory. Bees often display dietary speciali...

Summary Females of a small population of the mason bee Hoplitis perambigua on Lanzarote were observed forcefully entering pre-anthesis flowers of a hermaphrodite plant of the bugloss species Echium decaisnei by lifting one of the five still overlapping short corollar lobes. The females busied themselves for up to a minute inside the bud collecting...

Insect pollination is fundamental for natural ecosystems and agricultural crops. The bumblebee species Bombus terrestris has become a popular choice for commercial crop pollination worldwide due to its effectiveness and ease of mass rearing. Bumblebee colonies are mass produced for the pollination of more than 20 crops and imported into over 50 cou...

Chrysidid wasps adopt different strategies to enter host nests whilst evading detection. However, the specific oviposition strategies of most species are still largely unknown, and it has only become evident in recent years that some brood parasitic species are actually endoparasitoids in intermediate hosts that serve as the prey of their final hos...

Visitation by wild bee species alongside managed pollinators is necessary to ensure consistent yields and fruit quality in apple fields. Wild bee species are vulnerable to several environmental changes. Climate change is expected to lead to broad-scale changes to wild bee distributions that will impact the service they provide as crop pollinators....

Central Asia is a vast area hosting a diverse variety of habitats, but it remains undersampled and understudied. This imperfect study is true for members of the enormous bee genus Andrena that is known to speciate rapidly and show high levels of local adaptation and endemism; a surprisingly small regional total is known from Central Asia despite it...

Pollinators play a crucial role in ecosystems globally, ensuring the seed production of most flowering plants. They are threatened by global changes and knowledge of their distribution at the national and continental levels is needed to implement efficient conservation actions, but this knowledge is still fragmented and/or difficult to access. As a...

At a time when nature conservation has become essential to ensure the long-term sustainability of our environment, it is widely acknowledged that conservation actions must be implemented within a solid taxonomic framework. In preparation for the upcoming update of the IUCN Red List, we here update the European checklist of the wild bees (sensu the...

An essential prerequisite to safeguard pollinator species is characterisation of the multifaceted diversity of crop pollinators and identification of the drivers of pollinator community changes across biogeographical gradients. The extent to which intensive agriculture is associated with the homogenisation of biological communities at large spatial...

A new species of pantaloon bee, Dasypoda (Heterodasypoda) radchenkoi Ghisbain & Wood sp. nov., is described from both males and females collected in the limestone mountains of south-western Spain. COI barcodes show an important differentiation from D.morotei Quilis, 1928 of approximately 9.6% but the morphological divergence between the two species...

In recent years, the knowledge of the Portuguese bee fauna has gained significant updates, proving there is considerable potential to clarify and discover new bee species at the regional and national scales. Pollination ecology studies can produce new relevant records with expanded study areas and periods of the year compared to historical national...

Morocco has a large and species-rich bee fauna, but due to its large size and diversity of habitats, it remains understudied. Expeditions during 2022 discovered 16 new species for the country, including several very rarely collected or poorly studied taxa. The female of Thyreus mauretaniensis (Strand, 1911) is described for the first time, and Meli...

We used a population genomic approach to unravel the population structure, genetic differentiation, and genetic diversity of three widespread wild bee species across the Iberian Peninsula, Andrena agilissima, Andrena flavipes and Lasioglossum malachurum. Our results demonstrated that genetic lineages in the Ebro River valley or near the Pyrenees mo...

The Iberian Peninsula is a global hotspot for bee diversity due to its large number of different habitats, particularly Mediterranean scrubland, mountains, and hot and cold steppe. In line with its status as a hotspot of bee diversity, the peninsula hosts a very large Andrena fauna, which despite progress in recent years remains incompletely studie...

As an early-industrialising northern European country, Belgium has a comparatively well-studied insect fauna. Despite this, many challenging insect groups have lacked domestic specialists, and so work is required to resolve outstanding issues for the Belgian fauna. The species-rich genus Andrena is no exception, being the largest bee genus in Belgi...

Andrena is the second most speciose genus of bees, but much taxonomic work is still required to describe taxa from its centre of diversity—the Old World Mediterranean basin including Turkey to Central Asia—as well as to resolve nomenclatural issues. An additional 16 new species discovered in museum collections are described here: Andrena (Taeniandr...

Background DNA barcoding technologies have provided a powerful tool for the fields of ecology and systematics. Here, we present a part of the InBIO Barcoding Initiative Database: contribution to the knowledge on DNA barcodes of cuckoo wasps (Hymenoptera, Chrysididae) dataset representing 144 specimens and 103 species, covering approximately 44% of...

First record of Andrena schlettereri FRIESE, 1896 in Austria (Hymenoptera, Apidae). Andrena (Notandrena) schlettereri FRIESE, 1896 is recorded for the first time in Austria, in the federal state of Lower Austria. Additionally, first documented records from Montenegro and North Macedonia are reported. Here, we summarize its distribution and provide...

The resin bee Anthidiellum troodicum (Mavromoustakis, 1949) was originally described from Cyprus as a subspecies of the West Mediterranean Anthidiellum breviusculum (Pérez, 1890). Although the distinctiveness of these two taxa at the species level was recognised by Andreas Müller in 1996, this finding has not found its way into the literature. Exam...

Recent contributions with reviews at the national scale and occasional discoveries set the number of mainland Por-tuguese bee species at 720. However, regional edaphoclimatic singularities and sampling effort differences suggest there is an urgent need to expand sampling efforts to largely unexplored regions. Beira Baixa (central part of the Portug...

The bee genus Andrena is both species-rich and taxonomically challenging due to inter- and intra-specific variation, particularly for bivoltine taxa. One such case involves the subgenus Hoplandrena. Two species within this subgenus are widespread across the West Palaearctic, one of which is bivoltine and the other usually univoltine. The two specie...

Taxonomic analysis of pollen collected by bees can provide insights into their host plant use, providing information about the plant species selected for targeted conservation strategies. The two main identification approaches used are morphological analysis of pollen samples affixed to microscope slides (i.e., microscopic palynology) and molecular...

The industrial backbone of the Belgian province of Hainaut is well known for its high level of anthropization. The objectives of this study were to conduct an inventory of wild bee species living in these artificial landscapes and to locate biodiversity hotspots among different types of environments such as parks, quarries, brownfields, meadows, an...

Revisionary taxonomic studies of bees from the Old World Mediterranean basin are hindered both by the apparent absence of type material for many taxa and a lack of genetic resources. The discovery of important type materials in combination with the generation of novel DNA barcodes (Cytochrome Oxidase I) has allowed cryptic diversity within the wide...

Iran is a huge but understudied Middle Eastern country with a rich but chronically understudied bee fauna, including for the highly-speciose bee genus Andrena. Examination of unidentified museum material combined with recent field collections and a critical review of the literature has revealed a total of 197 species of Andrena in the Iranian fauna...

Bees are a diverse group with more than 1000 species known from the Iberian Peninsula. They have increasingly received special attention due to their important role as pollinators and providers of ecosystem services. In addition, various rapid human-induced environmental changes are leading to the decline of some of its populations. However, we kno...

Andrena is one of the most diverse bee genera, comprising about 1,600 described species of ground-nesting solitary bees. Many Andrena species are plant specialists, and several taxa have been indicated to be important pollinators of wild and/or crop plants. The Eastern Mediterranean Basin and Israel in particular are one of the main world diversity...

Floral abundance and richness on farmland has been declining since the mid 1900 s. Agri-environment schemes (AES) can improve floral resource availability through establishment of flower-rich areas or careful management of areas set-aside to naturally regenerate on farmland. Ideal management regimes include sowing and re-sowing of seed mixes, regul...

Agroecosystems are often impoverished ecosystems, but they can host diverse communities of insects which provide ecosystem services. Specifically, crops may benefit from insect pollinators that increase their quantity and quality of yields. Basic knowledge is still needed regarding the identity, diversity, abundance, and ecology of insect pollinato...

The Iberian Peninsula has one of the largest known Andrena faunas globally, with over 200 documented species. As a genus, Andrena show great phenological plasticity and ability to adapt to local conditions, leading to a high speciation rate. Consequently, fieldwork at unusual times of the year or in understudied regions continues to produce undescr...

Using a combination of DNA barcodes and morphology, we examine species boundaries in bees of the genus Andrena subgenus Taeniandrena in Europe. First, we solve the long controversy surrounding the status of Andrena ovatula (Kirby, 1802) and A. albofasciata Thomson, 1870, proposed to represent distinct species nearly 100 years ago, but mostly treate...

The Iberian Peninsula has one of the largest known Andrena faunas globally, with over 200 documented species. As a genus, Andrena show great phenological plasticity and ability to adapt to local conditions, leading to a high speciation rate. Consequently, fieldwork at unusual times of the year or in understudied regions continues to produce undescr...

Climate, landscape composition, management practice, and wild bee pollination are all variables thought to play significant roles in commercial apple production. However, how these variables affect production efficiency under field-realistic conditions has not been investigated at large geographical scales. We combined intensive standardized field...

Commercial apple production relies on managed honey bees for pollination, and on intensive management for pest control. Previous studies revealed the detrimental effects of these factors on wild bee diversity in agroecosystems, and the pollination services they provide. However, the extent to which honey bee dominance and management interact under...

Pollinators are facing declines at a global level. One of the main factors driving this decline is insufficient access to floral resources due to habitat loss and degradation that can affect both diet generalist species as well as those with more restricted floral preferences. Here we evaluated the effect of a novel mitigation strategy in agricultu...

Establishing a higher classification of bees based on morphology alone can fail to capture evolutionary relationships when morphological characters either vary very little between distantly related groups, or conversely vary greatly between closely related species. This problem is well represented in the subfamily Panurginae, for which a recent glo...

Spain has a large, species-rich bee fauna, but despite a long history of study, new species continue to be discovered at a rapid rate. New collections made during an expedition have revealed the existence of two additional species: Andrena (Taeniandrena) contracta spec. nov. is described from the high-altitude zone of the Sierra Nevada (Granada), a...

Iberia has a species-rich bee fauna as a result of its predominantly Mediterranean climate and the diversity of habitats that can be found across the peninsula. One region that displays some of this habitat diversity are the Doñana natural areas in south-western Spain. Though it is known to host species with highly restricted Iberian or Atlantic di...

Safeguarding crop pollination services requires the identification of the pollinator species involved and the provision of their ecological requirements at multiple spatial scales. However, the potential for agroecological intensification of pollinator-dependent crops by harnessing pollinator diversity is limited by our capacity to characterise the...

• In farmland landscapes worldwide, there are pervasive trends for either intensification or abandonment. Intensification is a widely recognised driver of wild bee declines, but little is known about the consequences of land abandonment, though it involves major habitat shifts from fallows, pastures and meadows, to shrublands and forests. • Focusin...

Commercial apple production relies on managed honey bees (Apis mellifera) for pollination, and on intensive management for pest control. Previous studies have highlighted the potentially detrimental effects of intensive crop management on wild bee diversity in agroecosystems, potentially jeopardizing the pollination services they provide. However,...

The mining bees (Andrenidae) are a major bee family of over 3000 described species with a nearly global distribution. They are a particularly significant component of northern temperate ecosystems and are critical pollinators in natural and agricultural settings. Despite their ecological and evolutionary significance, our knowledge of the evolution...

The present paper provides a list of records, both from literature and from recent collections, of 299 species of Spheciform wasps from Portugal. There are remarkably few recent published accounts of the Portuguese wasps. However, in the last 15 years there has been a considerable amount of collecting, especially in the Algarve, which has added ma...

Variation in dietary specialization stems from fundamental interactions between species and their environment. Consequently, understanding the drivers of this variation is key to understanding ecological and evolutionary processes. Dietary specialization in wild bees has received attention due to their close mutualistic dependence on plants, and be...

Bee populations have declined in many parts of the world, raising concerns over their conservation and the pollination services they provide. As a result of declines in agricultural areas, agri-environment schemes have been designed and implemented in order to reverse these trends. Until now, these schemes have largely focused on providing an abund...

Located in the Balkan Peninsula, Bulgaria has a rich bee fauna due to the interaction of both Mediterranean and continental climatic affinities in combination with its extensive mountainous areas that support many different ecological niches. The genus Andrena is the largest in Europe, and though the Andrena fauna of Bulgaria was the subject of som...