Two Model Genera to Demonstrate the Pollinator Bee Diversity of Turkey: Evylaeus Robertson and Halictus Latreille (Halictidae: Hymenoptera)

Bees (Apiformes: Apoidea: Hymenoptera) are the main pollinator group for many flowering plants. Due to this fact, they are attributed as the keystone group for the ecosystem. However, the studies on the pollinator bee groups of Turkey are underestimated. Neither their taxonomy nor their distributions are well known. The only bee groups in Turkey that were studied well are the members of the family Apidae, such as honeybee, bumblebee, carpenter bee and so on. Nevertheless, these groups are insufficient to display the great picture of the bee diversity of Turkey. For this reason, this study was prepared to report the current situation of some pollinator bee groups, Evylaeus Robertson and Halictus Latreille, one of the most dominant and most common genera of the family Halictidae, in order to show how diverse they are in Turkey. As a consequence, among 319 members of Evylaeus species that distribute in Palaearctic region, 136 of them (42% of total fauna) were reported to be found in Turkey. Moreover, it was reported that Halictus species of Turkey (35 species) constitute 47% of the Western Palaearctic fauna. These species accounts alone display the importance of the pollinator bee fauna of Turkey and give us an important clue about the diversity of the region