The Megachilidae (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Apiformes) of the Democratic Republic of Congo curated at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA, Belgium)

Abstract

Natural history collections (NHCs) are a cornerstone of entomology, and the conservation of specimens is the essential prerequisite for the development of research into systematics, biogeography, ecology, evolution and other disciplines. Yet, specimens collected during decades of entomological research conducted in less developed countries across Sub-Saharan Africa on pests, beneficial insects and insect biodiversity in general have largely been exported to be permanently preserved in developed countries, primarily in South Africa, Europe and the United States of America. This is particularly true for the Democratic Republic of the Congos (DRC) diverse wild bee fauna, which has been investigated throughout the colonial period by visiting or resident entomologists and missionaries who have then transferred their collected material primarily to Belgium as part of a wider legacy of scientific exploration and colonialism. Digitizing NHC is one way to mitigate this current bias, by making samples accessible to researchers from the target post-colonial countries as well as to the wider international scientific community. In this study, we compiled and digitized 6,490 specimens records relevant to 195 wild bee species grouped in 18 genera within the biodiverse family Megachilidae, essentially from the colonial era (i.e., mostly between 1905-1960, with additional records up to 1978), and curated at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Belgium. We provide a detailed catalogue of all records with updated locality and province names, including 26 species only available as type specimens. We also explore the historical patterns of diversity and distribution across DRC, and we provide a list of the research entomologists involved. This study is an important first step that uses digital technologies to democratize and repatriate important aspects of DRCs natural heritage of insect biodiversity, to stimulate more contemporary field surveys, as well as to identify and characterize research gaps and biodiversity shortfalls in little-explored regions of Sub-Saharan Africa.