---

---

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 Mzimba and Lilongwe Districts in Northern and Central Malawi, respectively. The data was collected by one government institutions namely LUANAR and one non-governmental organization (NGO) called Soils, Food for Healthy Communities (SFHC). Data collectors were agronomy graduates and Secondary School leavers. Data collectors were supervised by Mrs Yolice Tembo (a lecturer in entomology). 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. Facilitate
4. 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:

In this dataset, there are a total of 589 insects including bees, butterflies, moths, wasps and flies. 444 of these are bees, 119 are butterflies, 9 are moths, 11 are wasps and 6 are flies. Among the group of bees which were identified, the most abundant species is Apis mellifera, with a total of 281 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	281
	Xylocopa	X. scioencis	35
		X. incostans	22
		X. flavorufa	13
		X. erythrina	5
		X. caffra	4
		X. flavicollis	2
		Xylocopa sp	2
	Megachile	M. bombiformis	29
		M. bituberculata	6
		Megachile sp	8
	Nomia	N. chandleri	2
		Nomia spp	3
	Tetralonia	T. braunsiana	1
		Tetralonia sp	1
	Amegilla	A. calens	1
	Anthophora	A. vestita	2
	Augochloropsis	Augochloropsis spp	3
	Ceratina	Ceratina sp	1
	Lipotriches	L. orientalis	2
		Lipotriches spp	21
Butterflies	Acraea	A. serena	95
	Eurema	E. brigitta	6
	Catopsilia	C. pomona	2
	Lampides	L. boeticus	13
	Phoebis	P. sennae	2
Moths	Rhodometra	R. sacraria	7
	Euchlaena	Euchlaena sp	1
	Amata	Amata sp	1
Wasps	Hemipepsis	H. tamisieri	1
	Zethus	Z. slossonae	1
	Aporinellus	Aporinellus sp	9
Flies	Ischiodon	I. aegyptius	2
	Sphaerophoria	S. scripta	1
	unknown		3

 

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 Lilongwe and Blantyre sites was led by Dr Trust Kasambala Donga. She worked with Mr Timothy Chunga (SFHC) and Mrs Yolice Tembo. All insect specimens except butterflies and moths were stored in 70% alcohol at 4 degrees Celsius until they were processed (pinned and dried) according to FAO guidelines¹ at LUANAR’s Bunda College Campus in Lilongwe. All specimens were curated by Mrs Aubrey Kaphukusi, Herbert Folias and Malakin Pitolias; and Miss Chimwemwe Mvula using standard protocols¹. The insects were identified by Miss Kelita Phambala (Entomologist) using several published references^2-13. Verification of identified bees was done by Dr Connal Eardley - a South African expert bee taxonomist. Moths and butterflies were identified using picture keys from and verified by Mr Raymond Murpohy – a British expert moth taxonomist. All specimens identified to species level were digitized by Mrs Rabecca Mwale-Kuyaka. The data was extracted from ODK, cleaned and analysed by Dr Chikondi Makwiza, Mr Gift Chawanda, Mr Aubrey Kaphukusi, Mr Herbert Folias, Miss Chimwemwe Muvala and Mrs Rabecca Mwal-Kuyaka. The All voucher specimens are stored at LUANAR at Bunda College Campus in Lilongwe.

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.

---

---