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The is part of the pollinator data that is being mobilized from farmers’ fields in Malawi. The data mobilization exercise is led by Dr Trust Kasambala Donga (a senior lecturer in entomology) of Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi. The work is funded by JRS Biodiversity Foundation. This dataset is from Blantyre district in southern Malawi. The data was collected by two government institutions namely: Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) and Museums of Malawi (MoM). Data collectors were agronomy graduates and were supervised by Mr John Chipeta (Senior Entomologist) and Dr Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa (a lecturer in ecology). All pollinators were collected following Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Protocol to Detect and Monitor Pollinator  Communities Guidance for Practitioners¹. All data were collected between March 1 and December 2020.

Purpose:

1. Fill in taxonomic gaps in pollinator occurrence and diversity in Malawi
2. Fill in gaps in pollinator distribution
3. Help entomologists, conservation workers and policy makers to elucidate the impact of farmer practices on pollinator occurrence and diversity

Temporal Scope:

This summary provides metadata for the insects collected from 1 agroecological zone of Malawi: a. high altitude and high rainfall area with dense vegetation cover represented by Madziabango and surrounding areas in Blantyre District in southern Malawi. The data was collected from 20 farms. These farms are under smallholder farmer management. This is only a subset of data that has been collected from these two areas.

Taxonomic scope:

flies. 320 of these pollinators are bees, 118 are butterflies, 5 are moths, 54 are wasps and 66 are flies. There are also several species of blister beetles (Mylabris sp) which damage pigeon pea flowers and one species of ladybird beetles (Cheilomenes) which as natural pest control agents included in this dataset. Among the group of bees which were identified, the most abundant species is Apis mellifera, with a total of 112 specimens. Below is the table showing the number of specimens of each species/ genus.

Table 1: Number of specimens of identified to species level.

Insect group	Genus	Species	Number of specimens
Bees	Apis	A. mellifera	112
	Xylocopa	X. scioencis	14
		X. incostans	6
		X. flavorufa	24
		X. caffra	11
	Anthidium	A. severini	8
	Euaspis	E. abnominalis	4
	Amegilla	A. acraensis	3
		A. calens	13
	Megachile	M. chrysorrhoea	23
		M. frontalis	17
		M. maxillosa	2
	Thyreus	Thyreus pictus	3
Butterflies	Acraea	A. serena	1
		oncaea	1
	Utetheisa	U. pulchella	4
	Axiocerses	bambana	2
	Cacyreus	C. lingeus lingeus	1
	Lampides	L. boeticus	66
	Catopsilia	C. florella	12
	Ceroctis	C. trifurca	1
	Cheilomenes	lunata	1
		sulphurea	6
	Colitis	C. euippe omphale	2
	Cynthia	Cynthia cardui	1
	Danaus	D. chrysippus chrysippus	2
	Eurema	Eurema hapale	1
		E. hecabe senegalensis	3
	Graphium	G. angolanus angolanus	9
		G. leonidas	2
	Phalanta	P. phalantha	2
	Precis	Precis pelarga actia	1
Moths	Rhodometra	R. sacraria
	Euchlaena	Euchlaena sp
	Amata	Amata sp
Wasps	Ammophila	A. ferrugineipes	1
	Belonogaster	dubia	5
		petiolata	1
	Delta	D. emarginatum	10
	Hemipepsis	Hemipepsis tamisieri	2
	Philanthus	P. loeflingi	1
	Sceliphron	S. spirifex	1
	Senapsis	S. haemorrhoea	9
	Tarucus	T. sybaris sybaris	3
	Tricarinodynerus	Tricarinodynerus guerinii	1

Methodology:

We used sweep nets and coloured pan traps to collect insect specimens following FAO guidelines¹. Farm data was collected using ODK mobile app. The ODK forms were developed by Dr Chikondi Makwiza. The insects were collected from pigeon pea fields. The data collection team for Blantyre site was led by Dr Tiwonge Gawa (Lecturer in Ecology) of Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Thyolo district, southern Malawi. She worked with Mr John Chipeta (Senior Entomologist) of Museums of Malawi (MoM) at Mandala Museum in Blantyre. All insect specimens except butterflies and moths were stored in 70% alcohol at 4 degrees Celsius until they were processed (pinned and dried) at MoM. All specimens were curated by Mr Emmanuel Mwale and Mr John Chipeta using standard protocols¹. The insects were identified by Mr John Chipeta using several published references^2-13. All specimens identified to species level were digitized by Mr John Chipeta. Data was  extracted from ODK, cleaned and analysed by Dr Chikondi Makwiza, Mr Gift Chawanda and Miss Rabecca Mwale. The All voucher specimens are stored at MoM at Mandala.

Bibliography:

1. FAO, 2016. Protocol to Detect and Monitor Pollinator  Communities  Guidance for Practitionershttp://www.fao.org/3/i5367e/i5367e.pdf
2. Bryan N Danforth, Connal Eardley, Laurence Packer, Kenneth Walker, Alain Pauly, Fano José Randrianambinintsoa, 2008. Phylogeny of Halictidae with an emphasis on endemic African Halictinae. Apidologie 39 (1), 86-101
3. C Eardley, R Urban, 2010. Catalogue of Afrotropical bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Apiformes) Zootaxa 2455 (1), 1-548
4. Key to the Bee Families of the World published by Laurence Parker and Claudia Ratti of York University (Key to the Bee Families of the World (yorku.ca),
5. D Michez, C Eardley, 2007. Monographic revision of the bee genus Melitta Kirby 1802 (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Melittidae). Annales de la Société entomologique de France 43 (4), 379-440
6. C Eardley, M Kuhlmann, A Pauly, 2010. The bee genera and subgenera of sub-Saharan Africa Belgian Development Cooperation.
7. Key to  the Apis species of the world, http://www.atlashymenoptera.net/page.aspx?id=238
8. Key to the Megachilidae genera of the world, http://idtools.org/id/bees/exotic/key_mega.php
9. Key to the Anthidium subgenera of the world
10. Key to the Osmia subgenera of the world
11. Key to the Osmia (Osmia) species of the world
12. https://idtools.org/id/bees/exotic/keys.php
13. CD Eardley, 2004.  Taxonomic revision of the African stingless bees (Apoidea: apidae: apinae: meliponini)  African plant protection 10 (2), 63-96.

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