Lasius emarginatus is a fairly common warmth-loving ant found in much of Europe including the Channel Isles but only recently discovered in mainland Britian. It looks similar to the common black ant L. niger (Linnaeus) except for its distinctive orange/red alitrunk contrasting with its dark brown head and gaster. It could, possibly be confused with L. brunneus (Latreille), which is also bi-coloured, but it is a much bolder species. Unlike the furtive L. brunneus, L. emarginatus can be found running around on open ground. Under the microscope the antennal… Read more

Strongylognathus testaceus is a very rare ant parasitic on Tetramorium caespitum (Linnaeus). It is thought to be a degenerate slave-maker. Workers are yellowish brown, have pronounced occipital emargination and toothless sickle shaped mandibles.

It has been shown by Menke & Pulawski (2000) that the species listed as Sphex rufocinctus in publications since 1975 (e.g. Lomholdt, 1984; Dolfuss, 1991; Bitsch et al., 1997), and which is recorded from the Channel Islands, should be known as funerarius Gussakowskij. This species is only known from the Channel Islands and, as such, does not appear in either Richards (1980) or Falk (1991). This summary of its ecology is drawn from continental literature.

Although all latin names, authors, nbn keys are available in the species accounts, we don't yet have common names apart from for a few species. Will probably want to include common names for online recording.

Due to the huge number of images, expanding a family such as Andrenidae can be pretty slow.

Consider reducing the number of images loaded into the gallery per species.

BWARS encourages members to submit records electronically. There are two main advantages to the society in receiving electronic records:

• Electronic records save BWARS enormous amounts of time in  entering data onto mapping programmes.
• It is very easy to track records when using electronic databases. This means that it is easy for BWARS to find all records for a particular species, county, recorder, or other facet of a record.

Paper Records - If you are unable to submit electronic records, then BWARS is prepared to accept… Read more

The following observation was posted on the BWARS Forum by Nigel Jones on 29 April 2006:

I came across a female A. plumipes today. It flew in to a patch of Pulmonaria flowers, where males have been patrolling for some time. After landing it became very quiet and gripped the flower it landed on with it's mandibles. I was able to pick up the flower and photograph it, fully expecting it to fly off at any time. It… Read more