Diversity of insect visitors to flowers of fruit trees in Cameroon's lowland rainforest

Insect pollinators maintain the rich plant diversity of Congo Basin rainforests, assuring the production of the foods, timber, traditional medicines, cultural values and ecological services on which the region depends. However, these insects are poorly represented in scientific literature and in entomological collections. To conserve biodiversity and pollination services, it is important to improve knowledge of insect floral visitors in natural environments and to develop collections of specimens. To further these goals, we studied the insect visitors to flowers of four wild fruit tree species of regional importance. From March to June 2022, in secondary forest and agroforest, in the Bipindi district of southern Cameroon, we collected insects via net and mouth aspirator during daylight hours, and via interception trap overnight. We identified specimens to genera (Apoidea) or family and sorted them to morphospecies. A total of 446 insects were identified representing five orders, 28 families and 92 morphospecies. Hymenoptera were the most abundant visitors (252), followed by Diptera (173). Apidae were the best represented in terms of both abundance and richness, with 152 individuals, six genera and 16 morphospecies. High resolution photos of morphospecies are available, and specimens are housed at the University of Dschang, both pinned and in ethanol.