Bees of Sri Lanka
Being pollinators, bees have become the most useful group of insects and there are over 20,000 species of described bees in the world (Karunaratne & Edirisinghe, 2012). Of them, about 152 species belonging to four (of the seven) families Colletidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae and Apidae are found in Sri Lanka (Karunaratne et al., 2005; Wijesekara, 2001). Dalla Torre (1896) is considered the first one who recorded bees in the country (Karunaratne & Edirisinghe, 2012). He was followed by C.T. Bingham (1897) who documented the keys for 42 species of bees in 15 genera from Sri Lanka (Karunaratne & Edirisinghe, 2008; Wijesekara, 2001). Thereafter, investigations made by Smithsonian Institution, Washington during the 1978-1998 period and by several other taxonomists in the modern period resulted in the identification and documentation of 152 bee species in 38 genera and four families (Karunaratne & Edirisinghe, 2012; Karunaratne et al., 2005). Attribution 1) Macro bee in cool na…
