Current research on the status of wild bees and their pollination roles
野生蜜蜂及其传粉作用的研究现状

Pollination has been recognized to be an important ecological process to maintain and promote biodiversity on earth. The order Hymenoptera, especially the superfamily Apoidea, is one of the most abun- dant and diverse groups among natural pollinators. However, studies on the ecological functions of wild bee pollinators have been underappreciated in China. More professional taxonomists are urgently needed to sur- vey fauna, to provide accurate identifications and to do comprehensive studies. Our understanding of nesting biology or pollination biology is not comprehensive for most wild bees. On the other side, much more atten- tion should be paid to the associations between bees and plants for their application to various projects on pollination biology, biodiversity or conservation biology in the future. We review current research on the status of wild bees, and we anticipate further applications to practices in agriculture and forestry with infor- mation from taxonomy, nesting biology and pollination biology of wild bees.