Non-Apis bee diversity in an experimental pollinator garden in Bengaluru – a Silicon Valley of India

Necessity of pollinators in ecosystem services and their decline has raised concern for their conservation both in farm lands and urban areas. With the aim of conservation of these pollinators, we initiated developing a pollinator garden at Yelahanka Campus of ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources in an area of one acre by planting over 50 diverse plant species. Thirty-nine different species of bees were documented from the flora of the pollinator garden. Out of the thirty-nine species of bees, nineteen species of bees belong to non-apis families viz., Megachilidae and Halictidae. Apart from foraging on the flowers, the solitary bees like Megachile sp. were found nesting in the stems, fallen dried flowers in the pollinator garden. The bees were found year-round foraging upon the flora in the pollinator garden. Pollinator garden is a way to in-situ conserve the native bees to sustain the valuable pollination service in various crop plants provided by them.