The Ivy Bee is a species of mining bee that was first recorded in Britain in 2001. As the name suggests, it forages almost exclusively at flowers of Ivy, and flies only from September to mid-November (ie during the flowering period of Ivy).
These bees are nesting in the lawn. The nesting aggregations are often dense and the number of nests can get as large as 10's of thousands. They prefer loose soil.
Steven Falk has created an extensive Bombus section on his Flickr pages. This includes numerous images of 23 of the British species together with information about each species. Users will find the species accounts particularly useful for helpful hints on identifying Bombus species in the field.
Steven's pages are HERE
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Foraging female from Corfe Mullen (vc9)
Photo: Jane Adams.
The map shows all the records received up to the end of 2011 with records received in 2012 now appearing in red
BWARS is running an identification workshop for those wanting to improve their ability to identify solitary wasps with one submarginal cell.
Following the requests made at the very successful AGM workshops in Cardiff, Mark Pavett and Mike Edwards will be running a workshop at Cardiff in conjunction with the National Museum of Wales.
The workshop will be concerned with the identification of solitary wasps with one submarginal cell - the genera Trypoxylon, Crabro, Crossocerus, Ectemnius, Entomognathus, Lindenius, Rhopalum, Oxybelus.
If you don't know what these genera are, the workshop will provide a good starting point; equally, if you want to tussle with the finer points… Read more
IBRA - The International Bee Research Association has recently published Plants for Bees. Illustrated in full colour throughout, the book provides gardeners, beekeepers and bee lovers with all the information they need to create a healthy environment for the many species of bee in the British Isles.
Plants for Bees very adequately recognises the importance of all our native bee species. Many solitary as well as social species are depicted in excellent quality photographs, most of which have been contributed by BWARS members.
Plants for Bees can be orederd… Read more
The Colletes hederae "ivy bee" season is upon us. C. hederae has been spreading north across the country since 2001 and BWARS is keen to continue recieving records of sightings.
Details of workshops and the programme for the 2012 AGM are available here
