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BWARS Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society

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Aculeates

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2008 Identification Workshops Announced Details of two workshops in March 2008 have been announced. The workshops are designed to help attendees improve their skills at determining species in various bee genera - read more
Is Xylocopa viloacea establishing itself in the United Kingdom? More records of Xylocopa violacea from Kent and Cheshire have come to the attention of BWARS - read more
22 June 2007 Dramatic spread of Bombus hypnorum All members should be aware that there is a spate of records of Bombus hypnorum coming in to the recording scheme this year. The bulk still come from the "Home Counties" area of SE England, but BWARS have received two reports from hundreds of kilometres north of its previous known range. It appears that records from almost anywhere are now possible. BWARS intends to re-run the distribution map for B hypnorum in the Autumn newsletter as we now have 40 occupied 10km grid cells (cf 15 in the Spring Newsletter).Records this year extending the range northwards are from: Northants (early Spring - 2 locations) Huntingdon (mid-spring) South Northumberland (mid-June) Yorks ((mid June) Extending eastwards: S. Essex (May) E. Kent (2006 and spring 2007)	Photo: Nico Vereecken Bombus hypnorum is easy to distinguish. It is the only UK bee with a ginger haired thorax, black abdomen and white "tail". More photos here July 2007 distribution map here
6 March 2007. Springwatch Red Tailed Bumblebee Survey. A reminder to members and anyone else who is interested, that BBC Springwatch is carrying out a survey of the first emergences of Red Tailed Bumblebee Bombus lapidarius. Springwatch is an ongoing national survey that charts the change in spring occurrences of various fauna and flora. The Springwatch website contains an interesting map and bar chart, showing recorded emergence of B lapidarius across the UK. Go to Springwatch site. 5 March 2007. Xylocopa violacea is confirmed as over-wintering for the first time in Britain. Read more March 2007. BWARS has provided the National Biodiversity Network Gateway with some 279,666 records, for 545 species of bees wasps and ants. Anyone can now view updated interactive distribution maps at: NBN Gateway January 2007. Part 6 of the Provisional Atlas of the Aculeate Hymenoptera of Britain and Ireland has been published - read more November 2006. 2007 Workshops have been announced - read more July 2006. Pollinators in Decline BWARS records demonstrate a worrying decline in pollinators in Europe read more