Fauna Helvetica 29: Apidae 1 [French / German] Allgemeiner Teil, Gattungen, Apis, Bombus / Partie Générale, Genres, Apis, Bombus

About this book

Language: Bilingual in German and French

The first edition of Apidae 1 was published in 1996 in the series Insecta Helvetica of the Swiss Entomological Society (SEG). This volume was a novelty, as it contained not only keys but also distribution maps, which were produced by the Center Suisse de Cartographie de la Faune (CSCF) in Neuchâtel. As a result, the volumes have since been published jointly by the two institutions under the title Fauna Helvetica. With the help of the CSCF, it was also possible to raise money for the processing of bee material from public and private collections. Thus, for the following volumes Apidae 2-6 much more data on distribution and frequency of each species could be evaluated.

With the second edition of Apidae 1 the publisher did not only want to adopt the appearance and the bilingualism of the other volumes. In addition, all the drawings were redone, the text revised and expanded, the keys improved and the distribution maps brought up to date. The distribution maps for the first edition were based on the collection of the Natural History Museum Bern, the collection of first author Felix Amiet, and, for rare species, on the collections of the larger Swiss museums. Now, for the second edition, the entire bumblebee material of most public and numerous private collections in Switzerland has been examined.

Since the appearance of Apidae 1, a lot has changed in the systematics of bees. Since not all volumes can be reissued together, the original genus classification continues to be maintained with some restrictions. The chapter on the genera discusses this in more detail.

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