Bees

History of beekeeping on the Dutch Antilles

A preliminary checklist of bees is presented (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila) compiled for St. Eustatius, an island located in the Lesser Antilles of the eastern Caribbean. The list has nine species, including six that have not been previously documented on St. Eustatius. One species is exotic to the Caribbean, one species is found only on St. Eustatius and St. Kitts, and five species occur elsewhere in the Lesser and Greater Antilles. Two of the collected specimens could not be assigned to a species; their geographical distributions are unknown.