The study of wild bees has markedly increased in recent years due to their importance as pollinators of crops and wild plants, and this interest has been accentuated by increasing evidence of global declines in their abundance and species richness. Though best studied in Europe and North America, knowledge on the current state of wild bees is scarce in regions where they are particularly diversified, such as the Mediterranean basin. The eastern Mediterranean country of Lebanon, located at the heart of the Levant in a biodiversity hotspot, is particularly poorly studied. The aim of this paper is to produce a first annotated checklist of the wild bees of Lebanon from new and museum collections, literature records, and verified occurrences from online databases. The present list totals 573 species for Lebanon of which 289 are reported for the first time, but the estimated diversity is likely to be closer to 700. Preliminary information on local distributions and flower records are also presented. The local species assemblages indicate affinities with montane habitats of the Mediterranean and Anatolia and the semi-arid habitats of the Levant and north Africa. This study also encourages further research on local wild bee faunas and the use of this knowledge for conservation purposes.

Department of Agriculture and Food Engineering Holy Spirit University of Kaslik PO Box 446 Jounieh Lebanon

Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Charles University Viničná 7 CZ 12844 Prague Czech Republic

ETH Zürich Institute of Agricultural Sciences Biocommunication and Entomology Schmelzbergstrasse 9 LFO 8092 Zürich Switzerland

Imbacher Weg 59 D 51381 Leverkusen Germany

Laboratory of Zoology Institute of Biosciences University of Mons Place du Parc 20 7000 Mons Belgium

Mönchhofstr 16 Heidelberg Germany

OD Taxonomy and Phylogeny Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Rue Vautier 29 B 1000 Brussels Belgium

Senckenberg German Entomological Institute Müncheberg Germany

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