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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Logan, Utah » Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #423454
Research Project: Sustainable Crop Production and Wildland Preservation through the Management, Systematics, and Conservation of a Diversity of Bees

Location: Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research

Title: The bees of Utah: a species checklist

Author
item WILSON, JOSEPH - Utah State University
item HUNSAKER, ANTHONY - Utah State University
item Griswold, Terry
item MESSINGER, OLIVIA - Utah State University

Submitted to: Diversity
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/9/2025
Publication Date: 3/13/2025
Citation: Wilson, J.S., Hunsaker, A., Griswold, T.L., Messinger, O. 2025. The bees of Utah: a species checklist. Diversity. Volume 17, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/d17030212.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/d17030212

Interpretive Summary: How many bee pollinators we have in Utah is currently not known. Here we provide the first list of bees for the state and for each county within Utah. This information can provide those managing lands with an understanding of the distribution of the state’s rich fauna and gives those interested in pollinators an idea of where bees are found in the state. The list was created based on specimen records in the Logan, Utah USDA-ARS Pollinating Insects research collection and bee data from an on-line insect database (Symbiota Collection of Arthropods Network). The result is 1,167 bee species are now known for Utah. This is not all the species in the state. There are species that have yet to be named and specimens in the museums whose identities are unknown. So, an estimate of 1,500 bee species may be closer to the true number of bees in Utah. That makes it home to one of the richest bee faunas in the United States.

Technical Abstract: Understanding the distributions of bees is critical in efforts to protect these important pollinators. Because conservation efforts and decisions are often made at the state level, state bee species lists can aid conservationists and policy makers. While several North American state- and province-level bee species lists have been published, few exist for the arid western states, where bee diversity tends to be higher. Here we provide a bee species list for Utah, based on analysis of online occurrence records from the Symbiota Collection of Arthropods Network (SCAN) and specimen records housed in the USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Research Unit (BBSL). In total we document 1,167 bee species in the state of Utah. Based on the proportion of undescribed and not positively identified bee species from other bee faunal surveys in Utah, we estimate that there could be up to 1,500 bee species in the state. This study shows that Utah houses one of the richest bee communities compared to other published species lists. These data can provide a baseline for future studies on bee diversity and declines