Bees of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona: Taxonomic data and site photos

The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR), along the Mexican border in southern Arizona, is host to a rich community of bird and mammal species, many of which rely on seed-bearing plants for sustenance. Native bees (Anthophila) provide pollination services vital to the reproduction of such plants, and some of Earth’s highest bee diversity has been documented within the broader Sonoran Desert region. Native bees are historically under-monitored, especially in remote, unpopulated, and inaccessible regions. As the climate warms, global declines in native bee populations have underscored the importance of bee monitoring projects. Without baseline occurrence data, tracking the changing status of bee populations is nearly impossible. Despite the diversity of the region and urgent need for monitoring bee populations, the bee fauna of BANWR has not been methodically sampled. We conducted a survey of the BANWR bee fauna at least once a month from May 2019 to March 2020, using blue vane traps at each of eight sites within the refuge. Our sites varied in elevation, precipitation, associated plants, and fire treatment. A total of 39 distinct bee genera were documented across all sites. These data can be used to inform a monitoring program for pollinator health at BANWR.