[en] The industrial backbone of the Belgian province of Hainaut is well known for its high level of anthropization. The objectives of this study were to conduct an inventory of wild bee species living in these artificial landscapes and to locate biodiversity hotspots among different types of environments such as parks, quarries, brownfields, meadows, and spoil heaps. Ultimately, these results should facilitate the development of conservation policies.
Three years of sampling at 112 sites are summarised in this article. A total of 9410 specimens were captured and 180 beespecies were found, about 45% of the national diversity. Among them, 24 species are threatened at the Belgian level and one species, Lasioglossum politum, was considered extinct in Belgium. Its resurgence could be linked to rising temperatures. Furthermore, our results emphasize the fact that thermophilic anthropogenic habitats such as spoil heaps and quarries are important for many endangered species that are confined to specific nesting substrates. On the other hand, while parks had a diverse assemblage of wild bees, few were nationally threatened. As a result, we call on public policies to refocus their strategy away from urban parks and to allocate more resources to spoil heaps and quarries conservation.
