Details here:

BWARS Website User Survey

The BWARS website is several years old and has not kept pace with technological developments. For instance, we know that the current website does not work well on mobile phones. So, BWARS needs to commission a new website but we need to understand how you use the current website, and what you would like to see in a redeveloped website.

We are very keen to hear your views. Your answers will help us prioritise the development of the new website so that it meets your needs.

Bumblebees of North East England, covering Northumberland and County Durham, has been published by the Natural History Society of Northumbria.  Much of the data included was recorded by BWARS members.  Northumbrian Naturalist Volume 87 is available from the NHSN

Steven Falk has produced six very useful "crib Sheets" to help people distinguish the groups of look-a-like bumblebees. They can be downloaded from the Identification Guides page

Download the workshop presentation given by Juho Paukkunen at the BWARS Members' Weekend 2019. The presentation outlines key characters for separating the 13 British species of the cryptic Chrysis ignita group. Juho cautioned that colour characters given in the Nordic and Baltic Chrysididae key (Paukkunen et al., 2015) are not reliable for British specimens:

Juho Paukkunen, Alexander Berg, Villu Soon, Frode Ødegaard and Paolo Rosa. 2015 An illustrated key to the cuckoo wasps (Hymenoptera, Chrysididae) of the Nordic and Baltic countries, with description of a new species.

The 2019 AGM draft programme can be downloaded here

This is a corrected version of the key to Vespidae wasps, issued in the BWARS Newsletter (Spring 2019 issue).

The correction relates to one character which had been transposed in the male Dolichovespula part of the key.

Download the key here

Details of the BWARS AGM and Members' Weekend 2019 can be found in the diary

You can now download a list of all British aculeates and all of BWARS' data at 10km resolution. Access both files via the "Bees, Wasps & Ants" menu at top left above.

James Power reports: "We’ve formed a Sussex Bees and Wasps Recording Group, with the aim of sharing knowledge and skills and exploring different habitats and locations across both East and West Sussex. We have a number of site visits planned for 2019, and we’d love to hear from anyone interested in joining us.  If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch with James Power at jamesmbuna@gmail.com