Description
In Belgium, the recently established Semois Valley National Park (SVNP) is located in the south of Belgium, in a region with limited bee sampling data. Over five months (April - August 2024), we surveyed 32 sites and collected a total of 1,119 specimens belonging to 123 bee species. Twenty-one of the observed species are listed as threatened in Belgium according to the last Red List published for the country, four of them being Critically Endangered. This dataset also contains the information about who collected and identified the specimens.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 1,118 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Gérard M (2025): Bees collected in the Semois Valley National Park in Belgium. v1.1. Biodiversity Data Journal. Dataset/Occurrence. https://ipt.pensoft.net/resource?r=bees_semois_valley_belgium&v=1.1
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Biodiversity Data Journal. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 0907c9fe-ee97-48ce-975c-4fb1b31a0cac. Biodiversity Data Journal publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.
Keywords
Occurrence; Wild bees; National Park
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator ●
- User ●
- Point Of Contact
- Postdoctoral Researcher
Geographic Coverage
This dataset covers 32 sites of the Semois Valley National Park in Belgium (28,903 hectares). The wild bees have been collected in three main habitats: mesic grasslands (EUNIS E2), seasonally wet and wet grasslands (E3) and Tall-herb communities of humid meadows (E5.42). Some of these habitats have also been sampled: Valley mires, poor fens and transition mires (D2), riverine and fen scrubs (F9), dry grasslands (E1), Dry heaths (F4.2) and quarries.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [-90, -180], North East [90, 180] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
All the individuals samples belong to the clade of Anthophila (i.e. wild bees).
| Unranked | Anthophila |
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Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2024-04-01 / 2024-08-31 |
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Project Data
No Description available
| Title | Wild bee diversity of the National Park of the Semois Valley (Belgium) |
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The personnel involved in the project:
Sampling Methods
To ensure data consistency, a standardised sampling protocol was followed. Each sampling session involved 40 minutes of effective net collection time, which refers to the time spent actively searching for individuals within the plot. When a bee was captured, the stopwatch was paused to place the individual in a vial and to record the relevant collection information as outlined below. The effective collection time resumed once the bee was secured in the vial. Bees were exclusively captured using nets. The captures were carried out along a variable transect, where the collector moved freely across the site, primarily guided by the presence of flowers or nesting sites, rather than following a linear transect, where the collector remained on a straight line across the site. The variable transect approach enhances the capture of bee diversity by allowing the collector to focus on key plants and areas with abundant flowering. Collected individuals were placed in vials containing ethyl acetate-soaked paper for euthanisation. During collection, data such as altitude, longitude, latitude, site reference, bee behaviour (whether in flight, on the ground, or on flowers), and, when applicable, the plant species visited were recorded. The sampling protocol also required specific weather conditions. Thus, all captures were conducted between 9 AM and 5 PM, with temperatures above 15°C, no wind or rain, and low cloud cover.
| Study Extent | Throughout the study, each of the 32 sites was sampled monthly from April to August, resulting in a total of five sampling sessions per site across the entire inventory period. These months coincide with the majority of the active season for wild bees in Belgium. |
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Method step description:
- All bees were identified to species level using identification keys under a binocular microscope, and each identification was subsequently validated by a taxonomist expert of the group. Specifically, Apidae identifications were confirmed by Frédéric Carion, Guillaume Ghisbain and Achik Dorchin, Megachilidae by Clément Tourbez, Halictidae by Thomas Brau and Simone Flaminio, Andrenidae by Thomas Wood, Colletidae by Romain Le Divelec, and Melittidae by Maxence Gérard.
Collection Data
| Collection Name | Bees from the Semois Valley National Park |
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| Specimen preservation methods | Pinned |
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Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | https://ipt.pensoft.net/resource?r=bees_semois_valley_belgium |
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