Using Pan Traps for Collecting Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of İstanbul University

Objective: Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) are one of the main components of ecosystems with their indispensable roles in pollination service. However, in evaluating population trends, problems such as long-term monitoring data and insufficient taxonomical knowledge are at the forefront. To obtain long-term monitoring data on wild bees, pan traps are one of the useful methods among other equipment. In this study, we aimed to demonstrate the efficiency of pan trap’ shapes and the color preference of some very common wild bees.Materials and Methods: We set up a total of 24 pan traps in 8 stations at the Avcılar Campus (6 stations) and at the Alfred Heilbronn Botanical Garden (2 stations) of Istanbul University (Istanbul, Türkiye). At each station, three different colors (blue, yellow, and white) were used. At the end of each collection period, the traps were cleaned and moved to the next station.Results: As a result of the fieldwork, 329 apoid specimens were collected. 257 of them were determined as bees and 72 of them were wasp specimens in total. According to the results, yellow pan traps were 2 times more efficient than other colored pan traps combined.Conclusion: Our identifications show that members of Halictidae and particularly members of the genus Lasioglossum are the most abundant bee groups among collected specimens. Moreover, we observed that members of Halictidae (Lasioglossum sp. and Halictus sp.) tend to prefer yellow color more than the others.