D3444: East meets West? A provisional checklist of the bee fauna of the Arabian Peninsula

The first checklist of bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) of the Arabian Peninsula is presented. Excluding Apis mellifera, a total of 368 species and 61 genera, including 345 named species and 23 morphospecies is included. The checklist adds a total of 100 new country records. The United Arab Emirates presently has the richest fauna with 186 species followed by Saudi Arabia (167), Oman (152), Yemen (122), Kuwait (20), Qatar (14), and Bahrain (9). Of the 368 species found in Arabia, over half (56%) are currently only known from one country within the region. This number highlights how little is known in terms of species distributions within the Peninsula rather than exceptional levels of endemism. The Arabian fauna shows a clear overlap with that of North Africa rather than other eastern arid faunas. After three hundred years of study, the European Red List of Bees notes more than 55% of European species as “Data Deficient”. For Arabian bees a clear estimation of the number of species and their spatial patterns within the region is lacking. This checklist provides a baseline to start to understand the region’s pollinator community.