The work “Dichotomous Keys of the Genera of Bees in Portugal. Hymenoptera: Anthophila”, is the first to be published on the subject for Portugal and in Portuguese, revealed the FCTUC, in a note sent to Lusa agency.

Produced within the scope of the PolinizAÇÃO and EPIC-Bee projects, in collaboration with the University of Coimbra Press, the book is now available for free download.

“Developed as a tool for identifying bee genera, the book is primarily intended for an academic and technical audience, constituting a significant milestone in the field of entomology and a valuable contribution to the conservation of pollinating insects,” said FCTUC.

The production of the technical book involved researchers from the FLOWer Lab of the Center for Functional Ecology and the Department of Life Sciences at FCTUC, namely Hugo Gaspar, Sílvia Castro and João Loureiro.

“This book fills a decades-long gap in research on wild bees in Portugal, as it updates knowledge and brings it closer to the national entomological community through adaptation and translation into the Portuguese language,” said entomologist and FCTUC PhD student, Hugo Gaspar.

The work “will be extremely useful not only for researchers working on the study and conservation of pollinators but also for students, naturalists and anyone interested in learning about bee identification,” he added.

The work also had the collaboration of the researcher from the University of Porto, José Grosso-Silva, and the team of researchers linked to the Zoology Laboratory of the University of Mons (Belgium), through the European projects Spring, Orbit and Epic-Bee.

FCTUC declared that this launch reinforces the University of Coimbra's commitment to promoting science and developing tools to support scientific research and knowledge about biodiversity.