Reference genome sequence of the solitary bee Camptopoeum friesei Mocsáry, 1894 (Hymenoptera, Andrenidae)

Bees are major pollinators of flowering plants and thus are important ecosystem service providers for natural habitats and crops. Evolution led to a wide range of adaptations in behaviors, morphology and ecological traits. Many plants rely on specialized bee species for pollination events, and so this interdependence can make them increasingly vulnerable to ongoing threats of habitat loss and pesticide exposure. Studying the genomes of bee species across different life histories and ecological specializations can help understand the evolution of these traits more generally, but also inform conservation efforts for Camptopoeum friesei specifically. Here, we present the reference genome of the solitary bee Camptopoeum friesei (Arthropoda; Insecta; Hymenoptera; Andrenidae). C. friesei is highly dependent on steppe habitats where it nests in saline soils. Further, it is highly specialized (oligolectic) on a few Asteraceae: Centaurea and Cirsium, in particular on Centaurea stoebe. As a consequence of its high specialization level, it is of its ecological niche with an extremely scattered and rare habitat, C. friesei is highly threatened in central Europe, albeit local aggregations can be rich in individuals. The high-quality genome assembly for the colourful bee Camptopoeum friesei was generated using long-read PacBio HiFi in combination with chromatin conformation capture (Hi-C) sequencing. The genome spans 367.7 megabases (Mb), N50 of 25.2 Mb. The majority of the assembly is scaffolded into 10 chromosomes and harbours ~40% repeats.