BWARS President, Michael Archer's key to Vespoid wasps has been published by the Royal Entomological Society. This new work contains a well illustrated key, detailed species accounts and colour images of many species.

Details for the AGM weekend programme have been published here

Andrena vaga, a widespread black and greyish-white mining bee in continental Europe, has recently been found at two locations on the south coast of England - at Dungeness, Kent and Brownwich Cliff, Hampshire. This species could easily be overlooked as it is similar to the widespread A. cineraria, (especially the males) so do be on the look out for this striking Andrena bee in the coming weeks, particularly in southern England.

The South West Bees Report researched 23 species considered to be at risk in the UK, twenty are declining whilst three have become extinct.

Steven Falk has been developing a major photo resource on Flickr, this aims to provide numerous images and notes to help users determine British bee species. A description of the resource and instructions for using it can be downloaded here

Steven Falk's Review of the Scarce and Threatened Bees, Wasp and Ants of Great Britain, published in 1991, and long out of print, can now be downloaded at:

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/Pub91_Review_of_threatened_bees_wasps_ants_PRINT.pdf

Two new book reviews - The Natural History of Bees and Gardening for Butterflies (2013), Bees and other beneficial insects (2010) have been added to the Book Reviews section

Update: 11 October 2013

On the eastern side of the country, Colletes hederae has now been sighted in north Norfolk, even further north than the Shrewsbury sighting below. Latest map here.
 

Update: 10 October 2013

This is an update to an existing news item.

Invertebrates and us - the good, the bad and the ugly is the title of a series of lectures organised by the  Ecology and Conservation Studies Society. This includes two aculeate themed lectures.

Download the programme here

Colletes hederae is now flying in some areas. Send your records to BWARS' annual monitoring project