Browsing by Author "Muyabi, Juma"

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    The diversity of flower visiting bees in fragmented forest and adjacent farmland in Pare mountains, Tanzania.
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2013) Muyabi, Juma
    The diversity of wild bees’ fauna of Pare Mountains is not well known due to lack of records from that area. This study aimed at determining the diversity of flower visiting wild bees in the Pare Mountains, Tanzania between forest fragments and farmlands. Four sites in South and North Pare Mountains were studied. A sweep net was used to sample wild bees during the long rainy season of 2011 when plants were growing and flowering. The climate was cool with misty and cloudy in Chome and Kindoroko study sites during sampling with only few clear warm days. The number of bees collected in all study sites was 701 bees’ individuals that represented 4 families, 9 genera and 26 morphospecies and among them, there were 3 parasitic taxa. The bee abundance and species richness of Pare Mountains was low compared to other parts in East Africa. The Shannon-Weiner diversity index showed that fragmented forest had higher bees diversity than the farmland. The results rejected the first hypothesis stated that there was no differences on bees diversity between fragmented forest and their adjacent farmland. The fragmented forests had higher bees diversity than farmland because of high diversity and abundance of quick flowering plants caused by variation of weather of the study sites. The results supported the second hypothesis of presence of a high dominance of the wild bee fauna found in the Pare Mountains caused by high elevation of the study sites. The dominance was more on presence of family Apidae, Apis spp and large bees such as Xylocopa spp and Amigella spp. Land use altered diversity of wild bees, and proper land use plan, and conservation is needed in the study sites.