The Bee Diversity Informatics Project (hosted at Makerere University College of Natural Sciences) announces the presence of an online interactive identification key to the bees of Uganda/East Africa. Uganda has a large diversity of bee species estimated at 650 species.  Most species are poorly known, however, and are threatened in many areas by the use of pesticides and habitat degradation.

This is the first such key for Uganda and East Africa. It does not replace existing hard copy keys to the bee genera of the region but rather complements them. Most significantly, it allows for a larger number of bee researchers in the region to have access to a taxonomic reference. Its interactive property means it may also be used as a teaching resource on bee morphology and taxonomy.

Development of the key was made possible with financial support from the JRS Biodiversity Foundation and additional technical support from the USDA-ARS (United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service).

Read more about Makerere University’s Generating information on bee pollinator diversity and distribution in Uganda through the application of ecological and informatics tools grant.