The bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of Louisiana: an updated, annotated checklist
An annotated checklist is provided for 243 species and subspecies of bees collected from or thought to occur in the state of Louisiana, where 163 are confirmed records, 46 are probable records, and 34 are possible records. We also list twelve records considered to be “dubious” because of the absence of supporting collection data and extralimital reported ranges. Data on parish localities, seasonality, and floral records are provided when available. Specimen data are provided from two separate surveys in the state, one focusing on the fauna of longleaf pine savannas and another focusing on Cajun prairie habitat in southwestern Louisiana. Data from a previous annotated checklist of bees from longleaf pine savannas (Bartholomew et al. 2006) are included, as well as online records from the Discover Life checklist (Ascher and Pickering 2016), and bee holdings of the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA).We highlight the role that this museum and similar small institutional insect collections play in documenting faunas on local and regional scales.