The objectives of this study are to document the pollinator, parasite and parasitoid diversity found in the Mojave National Preserve using standardized methodology. This data will build a foundation of baseline data for the Mojave National Preserve which can be used for monitoring species richness, abundance and community composition in the future. This will also build on previous studies of pollinators and some parasitoids at Kelso Dunes over the past 20 years. Past studies revealed that some parasites choose bee hosts which are more abundant than other species in the community but offer similar sized nest provisions, and geographic overlap (Saul-Gershenz, unpublished). Distributions maps produced from museum archival records (Fig. 2. Distributions of solitary bees Anthophora estebana and A. hololeuca in the western deserts from archival data, [Saul-Gershenz et al. 2016]) show two different species with seemingly different distributions in Riverside Co. However, it is difficult to discern whether these differences are due to actual differences or result from differences in collection effort, coverage, frequency and/or timing of collection. We plan to conduct this research in the preserve as described in the application above. We would like lodging accommodations at the Desert Studies Center

Approved