Pollinating fauna of a phryganic ecosystem: species list

Studies on the pollination biology of Mediterranean scrub vegetations (maquis and phrygana) are not available as yet on an ecosystem level. To analyse in detail the pollination food web of the phrygana, the vegetation and the pollinator fauna of a phryganic ecosystem near Athens has been continuously monitored during a period of fifty months, April, 1983 – May, 1987 (Petanidou, 1991). The study site, at Dafni, approx. 10 km W of the centre of Athens, was a 30 ha part of the Diomedes Botanical Garden of the University of Athens; see Petanidou & Ellis (submitted) for more details. The number of pollinator species amounted to 666, which is the highest pollinator alpha diversity recorded so far for any ecosystem. A large proportion of the fauna (262 species) consisted of bees. This underlines the uniqueness and high conservation value of the phrygana as such.