L’inventaire des fourmis réalisé dans la Réserve Naturelle Nationale de Néouvielle réactualise l’état des connaissances de la myrmécofaune plus d’un demi-siècle après les derniers inventaires opérés. De nouvelles espèces ont été répertoriées et Leptothorax goesswaldi a été découvert pour la première fois dans les Pyrénées. La singularité microclimatique du Massif de Néouvielle permet aux espèces d’atteindre des altitudes record pour le versant français des Pyrénées centrales.

Situation of Melitturga caudata in France (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Andrenidae). - The author provides a comprehensive review of the current knowledge on this Mediterranean bee species. Following a detailed taxonomic overview, the distribution of the species across French sites is catalogued. The author also explores the species’ biology and ecology. A thorough analysis of its population status in France is presented, suggesting that a decline may have already begun.

Updated checklist of bees of mainland France (Hymenoptera: Apocrita: Apoidea). - The checklist of bees from metropolitan France is presented here, with an update of the previous checklist published in 1995 which included 865 species. A total of 150 species have been added to this previous checklist, 114 thanks to new distributional records and 36 due to an update of their taxonomic status. In addition, 32 have been removed from the previous list, along with 12 species recently reported in French territory whose presence has either been refuted, deemed doubtful, or requires confirmation. This work results in a list of the 983 confirmed bee species for metropolitan France. This high species richness is related to the high variety of climatic and biogeographic contexts throughout the country. The amount of changes between the previous and the current checklists, most of them related to changes that happened in the past few years, illustrates the importance of keeping our efforts on improving the knowledge of the French bee fauna even today and in the years to come. This update represents an initial step toward supporting these efforts, including the forthcoming red list of French wild bees.

Editorial

First list of bee species of the Centre-Val de Loire region (France) declined by departments over the period 1990–2021. (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila). - This article presents the taxonomic list of bees in the Centre-Val de Loire region (France) by department over the period 1990–2021. This study reveals the presence of 287 bee species in the region, with disparities between departments: between 50 and 60 species are recorded in Indre and Eure-et-Loir, compared with almost 200 species in Loiret (182) and Loir-et-Cher (195). These results are meant as an encouragement to develop our knowledge of the bee fauna in our region.

We report for the first time the presence of the Argentine ant Linepithema humile (Mayr, 1868) on Reunion Island and specify the conditions under which we detected it. We also mention the second observation for the ant Cyphomyrmex minutus Mayr, 1862.

Until now, Sphex optimus F. SMITH, 1856 has been known from only the holotype which had presumably been collected in Western Africa. Here, new records of a taxon from Central America with phenotypic accordance are presented. Diagnostic characters of S. optimus and the Neotropical species are given and the equivalence of the two taxa is being postulated.

Wild bee communities of Sardinia and Corsica, two Mediterranean islands, have been relatively understudied. In this article, Lasioglossum inexpectatum sp. nov., which is known exclusively in Sardinia and Corsica, is described, emphasizing the importance of ongoing research and conservation efforts to protect the unique wild bee biodiversity in the Mediterranean basin.

Eucera (Cubitalia) breviceps (FRIESE, 1911), hitherto only known from Turkey and Syria, was discovered in the southern part of Massif Central (France), in the “Grands Causses” area, a few years ago. It has been found to be distributed throughout it, also present in the French Alps and Italy (Valle d’Aosta, Abruzzo) as well as in southwestern Bulgaria and northern Greece. Our article presents the corresponding data, originated from field work and examination of material in collections, and gives new data for Turkey from material in the collection of the Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Linz (Austria). Several ecological traits of E. breviceps are discussed. We especially highlight the close association between E. breviceps and the plant genus Onosma L. (Boraginaceae), based on literature and our field observations. Both their ecological requirements and their interactions illustrate the complexity of such relationships and their potential vulnerability in the context of global change. Through this remarkable example of an oligolectic interaction, we aim to promote a better consideration of pollinators, notably bees, and pollinator networks in conservation biology.