Cane, J. H., R. L. Minckley, and L. J. Kervin. 2000. Sampling bees (Hymenoptera: Apiformes) for pollinator community studies: pitfalls of pan-trapping. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 73:225-231. JAMES H. CANE, ROBERT L. MINCKLEY 1 and LINDA J. KERVIN USDA Bee Biology & Systematics Lab, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84341-5310 1 Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0840 Abstract: With the growing interest in pollinator conservation, a need has emerged for a simple, unbiased method to reliably sample local bee faunas. One method, pan-trapping, has increased in popularity without critical evaluation of its efficacy and biases. We compared traditional net collecting at flowers and pan trapping concurrently, sampling the local bee fauna of the dominant desert shrub, creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) growing at the Silverbell site of the International Biosphere Program (IBP) nw of Tucson Arizona. Pan-traps on the ground yielded a faunal sample depauperate in many of the more common native bee species on creosote bush, particularly its floral specialists. This pan-trap sample also corresponded poorly with the previous four years’ faunal samples at this site, with pairs of neighboring net-sampled sites throughout the Southwest, and with all pairs of bee samples from Larrea across the Upper Sonoran desert. The likely causes of this disparity and the utility of pan trapping for bees in faunal and community studies is discussed.