Flying Ant Days - please enter your observations here Enter data page

Scientists from the University of Leeds are looking for assistence in collecting data on where and when "flying ant days occur". Please help by completing an online form at the link above. You can read more about this BioDAR Project to the right.

A crib sheet by Steven Falk to aid the identification of bumblebees with bands and red tails (i.e excluding those with unbanded black bodies and red tails) - 2021

A crib sheet by Steven Falk to aid in the identification of female cuckoo bumblebees - 2021

The eusocial wasp Polistes biglumis was formerly added to the British list on the basis of several females and males present in July to September 2020 at a country park on the Kent coast (Hazlehurst, 2020). The number present implied at least one nest. It is a larger species than other Polistes - queens can reach a length of up to 16 millimeters, worker up to 14 millimeters.

Species pages have been created for Polistes nimpha and Pemphredon fabricii. Both were added to the British list in 2021.

Polistes nimpha is a primitively eusocial species with poorly-differentiated queens,

Added to the British mainland list by Falk and George 2021 (Falk, S.J. and George, S. 2021. Polistes nimpha (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Another Paper Wasp New to Britain. British Journal of Entomology and Natural History. 34: 1.

Download the paper adding Polistes nimpha to the British list below:

Added to the British list by Falk & Early 2021 (Falk, S.J. & Early, J. 2021 Pemphredon fabricii (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) New to Britain. British Journal of Entomology and Natural History: 34: 1.

Download the paper introducing this species to the British list below. Includes a revised key to British Pemphredon species.

This guide uses a combination of size, colour pattern and biological information to provide an identification key of 14 fairly distinctive species of solitary bees known
from Scotland. The key applies to female bees only: their male counterparts are often much harder to identify and are not discussed.  Most of the bees in the key should also be identifiable from good close-up photographs as long as their critical features are visible.

The second edition of the Bees, Wasp and Ants of Kent by Geoff Allen has been published by the Kent Field Club. Priced at £16 including postage and packing (£12 at Field Club events), it has 198 pages in full colour in A4 format, with notes on all species recorded in the county updated from the first edition (2009) plus distribution maps and photographs. Copies may be ordered at https://www.kentfieldclub.org.uk/publications/books.

David Baldock et al - The Vespiform Wasps of Portugal, is available to purchase (19 euros plus carriage) or downloaded from here: The Vespiform Wasps of Portugal