Introduction

Materials and methods

The Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen - South Tyrol is dominated by mountains and is rich in forests, grasslands, watercourses and lakes. Valley floors are intensively cultivated and mainly occupied by settlements, managed apple monocultures and vineyards. With increasing elevation, cropland is progressively substituted by meadows, pastures and forests. Despite the intensively cultivated valleys, natural and semi-natural habitats (SNH) cover 82.3% of the region’s surface (Anderle et al. 2022). Data collection occurred within two valleys: Eisacktal/Valle Isarco (from Bozen/Bolzano to Klausen/Chiusa) and Etschtal/Val D´Adige (from Prad am Stilfser Joch/Prato allo Stelvio to Salurn/Salorno) (Fig. 1). Exact locations are provided in Suppl. material 1 and are also part of the monitoring programme for other taxa, including vascular plants, grasshoppers, butterflies, birds, bats and others, conducted by the “Biodiversity Monitoring South Tyrol” (Hilpold et al. 2023).

Figure 1.  

Section of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen, Italy, with the study area and sites categorised by habitat class. Site code specifications and coordinates can be found in Suppl. material 1.

For bees collected during the first year, a specimen (of both sexes, if present) per species per site was prepared to be stored in an insect box. In the second year, we prepared one specimen (of both sexes, if present) per species per site. All the other bees are labelled, temporarily stored in 70% ethanol and checked regularly in case ethanol refilling was necessary. The specimens will be temporarily kept by the Institute for Alpine Environment at Eurac Research for further research and then gifted to the South Tyrol Museum of Nature in Bolzano/Bozen. Abundance data for each species in each study year are provided in Suppl. material 3; for detailed sampling methodology and habitat descriptions, see Suppl. material 4. The first checklist provides the list of wild bee species, while Suppl. material 2 includes details on their sociality, nesting strategies, dietary preferences and threat status.

Data resources

Analysis

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Author contributions

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Supplementary materials