Contribution à la connaissance des abeilles sauvages (Hymenoptera; Apoidea) dans les milieux naturels et cultivés de la région de Khenchela.

Abstract

This work consists of studying the pollinating Apoidea in the area of Khenchela in natural and cultivated environments. During the period between November 25, 2004 to October 27, 2005, we led an inventory of the species and their distribution in various altitudes. The highest peak is that of Chelia “2326 m.”, the two other stations: Tamza and Touchnet are at lower altitudes. At the end of this work 22 genera, 39 sub-genera and 80 species distributed between 5 families were listed on the level of the area of Khenchela. This study made it possible to retrain 15 new species and 3 subspecies for the fauna of Apoidea of Algeria. They were not announced by the authors of the beginning of the 20th century, nor by the authors who worked recently on Apoidea of this country. Concerning the number of species for each family, we distinguished that Apidae mark the greatest number with 27 species followed by Halictidae (21 species), Megachilidae (16 species), Andrenidae (14 species) and finally Melittidae with 2 species. The study of the composition of the fauna of Apoidea savages and the use of the ecological indexes of composition and structure made it possible to judge the structure of the populations of bees in the studied region. We showed that the distribution of the wild bees seems to depend on the type of the vegetable cover. These results prove the need for taking into account the conservation of the wild bees which play a dominating role in the pollination of the crop and the spontaneous plants. The diversity of wild Apoidea appears primarily related to the diversity of the plants.