Wild Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of the Ossipee Pine Barrens

The pine barrens of the American Northeast is a globally rare and endangered landscape. The handful of pine barrens remaining in the Northeast provide valuable habitat to many threatened and endangered plant and animal (including insect) species, yet little is known about the bee fauna in this habitat. Here we present the results of the first faunal bee survey of the Ossipee Pine Barrens (OPB) in New Hampshire. We collected over 800 specimens from pan and sweep samples representing 95 species. We documented 1 species, Megachile mucida, for the first time in the state of New Hampshire and recorded 4 introduced species. In addition to general surveying, we surveyed landscapes with 4 different types of management for the OPB. Landscapes that incorporated both burning and mowing after burning into the management regime supported bee communites that had significantly greater abundance than all other treatments and greater species richness than all other landscapes, though not signficantly higher than those that were mowed without burning.