Phylogeny, antiquity, and niche occupancy of Trinomia (Hymenoptera: Halictidae), an Afrotropical endemic genus of Nomiinae.

The Afrotropical region is home to many endemic bee groups, yet almost none have been studied from an integrated, holistic perspective. Among them, the halictid subfamily Nomiinae contains exceptional African diversity with variable distributions and life histories. Here, we combine phylogenomics, molecular dating, and distributional modelling to explore the evolutionary ecology of the genus Trinomia.

Forests are critically important to global pollinator diversity and enhance pollination in adjacent crops.

Although the importance of natural habitats to pollinator diversity is widely recognized, the value of forests to pollinating insects has been largely overlooked in many parts of the world. In this review, we (i) establish the importance of forests to global pollinator diversity, (ii) explore the relationship between forest cover and pollinator diversity in mixed-use landscapes, and (iii) highlight the contributions of forest-associated pollinators to pollination in adjacent crops. The literature shows unambiguously that native forests support a large number of forest-dependent species and are thus critically important to global pollinator diversity.

Unparalleled mitochondrial heteroplasmy and co-infection in the non-model bee, .

Mitochondrial heteroplasmy is the occurrence of more than one type of mitochondrial DNA within a single individual. Although generally reported to occur in a small subset of individuals within a species, there are some instances of widespread heteroplasmy across entire populations. is an Australian native bee species in the diverse and cosmopolitan bee family Colletidae.

Continental risk assessment for understudied taxa post-catastrophic wildfire indicates severe impacts on the Australian bee fauna.

The 2019-2020 Australian Black Summer wildfires demonstrated that single events can have widespread and catastrophic impacts on biodiversity, causing a sudden and marked reduction in population size for many species. In such circumstances, there is a need for conservation managers to respond rapidly to implement priority remedial management actions for the most-affected species to help prevent extinctions. To date, priority responses have been biased towards high-profile taxa with substantial information bases.

Holocene population expansion of a tropical bee coincides with early human colonization of Fiji rather than climate change.

There is substantial debate about the relative roles of climate change and human activities on biodiversity and species demographies over the Holocene. In some cases, these two factors can be resolved using fossil data, but for many taxa such data are not available. Inferring historical demographies of taxa has become common, but the methodologies are mostly recent and their shortcomings often unexplored.

Climate change and invasive species: a physiological performance comparison of invasive and endemic bees in Fiji.

Anthropogenic climate change and invasive species are two of the greatest threats to biodiversity, affecting the survival, fitness and distribution of many species around the globe. Invasive species are often expected to have broad thermal tolerance, be highly plastic, or have high adaptive potential when faced with novel environments. Tropical island ectotherms are expected to be vulnerable to climate change as they often have narrow thermal tolerance and limited plasticity.

Radiation of tropical island bees and the role of phylogenetic niche conservatism as an important driver of biodiversity.

Island biogeography explores how biodiversity in island ecosystems arises and is maintained. The topographical complexity of islands can drive speciation by providing a diversity of niches that promote adaptive radiation and speciation. However, recent studies have argued that phylogenetic niche conservatism, combined with topographical complexity and climate change, could also promote speciation if populations are episodically fragmented into climate refugia that enable allopatric speciation.

Review of the bee genus Homalictus Cockerell (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) from Fiji with description of nine new species.

The genus Homalictus Cockerell has not been taxonomically reviewed in the Fijian archipelago for 40 years. Here we redescribe the four known species and describe nine new ones, bringing the number of endemic Homalictus in Fiji to 13 species. We provide identifications keys to all species.

Evolution: Dampening the Cambrian Explosion.

The Cambrian explosion is widely seen as evolution's 'big bang', generating a vast diversity of animals in a geological blink of an eye. Two new studies, however, caution against overestimating its magnitude.

First observations on the life cycle and mass eclosion events in a mantis fly (Family Mantispidae) in the subfamily Drepanicinae.

Background: The Mantispidae are a distinctive group of Neuroptera known for the adults' possession of raptorial forelegs. There are four recognised, extant subfamilies of Mantispidae: the Mantispinae, Symphrasinae, Calomantispinae and Drepanicinae. The life history and larval behaviour of the subfamily Mantispinae is best known: the immatures are spider egg predators.