Bees and Wasps
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List of Bees & Wasps :
no common name
Andrena nigroaenea
With over 60 different Andrena species in the UK the bee in the first image could be one of several very similar species. I assume that it is Andrena nigroaenea because it was found in the same location and at the same time of year as the two specimens seen below - which have been positively identified by microscopic examination. Hopefully this demonstrates that one cannot always rely on photographs for identification of similar looking species. Sometimes images are suffixed with the term 'agg.', indicating that they are representative of an aggregate group of similar species.
Date
12-24.04.2005
Sighting
Males and females much in evidence around sandy soil.
13.04.2008
A bright sunny day and many bees actively nest building in grass and flower borders.
31.03.2009
Warm sunny day and suddenly bees much in evidence around last years territory. Several small exit holes seen and one freshly excavated mound.
01.04.2009
What a difference a day makes. We now have hundreds of nest mounds in the sandy soil of the lawn and flower borders.
28.03.2010
Warm sunny day and first emergent A. nigroaenea seen sleepily wandering about, grooming itself and taking a tentative first flight.
01.04.2010
The lawn is now alive with activity and hundreds of mounds.
13.04.2012
First activity of the year after a wet and chilly start to April. Numbers not as good as in the past.
Like the Tawny Mining bee (see below), these are solitary ground nesting bees, excavating deep tunnels in sandy soil and pushing the spoil to the surface to form little mounds. Every so often a side chamber will be dug out to accommodate one larva. This will be provisioned with a paralysed insect on which an egg is laid. The chamber is then sealed, before the female moves on to create the next chamber.
Nest building can be a protracted business as it is influenced by the weather. Cold or wet spells will cause the bees to become dormant. But the first dry sunny day will usually see activity start up again.
The egg is left to hatch and the larva, a white grub, will develop in isolation, feeding on the food provided for it. When mature, the larva pupates and will remain underground until the following spring when the bee will emerges from the pupa and instinctively breaks open the chamber wall and makes its way to the surface.
These bees are very active but not at all aggressive and can be very interesting to watch.
As in many insect species the females are larger and more robust than the males. They have more hair on their bodies and legs and consequently appear more colourful. The males have a tuft of longer pale facial hair between the eyes, are slimmer and in sunlight their abdomen appears to be shiny dark brown.
a 'Cuckoo' bee
Nomada sp. (flava?)
Yes, it does look like a wasp, doesn't it? But no, its a cleptoparasitic Cuckoo bee, the likes of which preys on mining bees like the one above. Notice that the thorax is covered in short hair which is not a common feature in wasps.
There are several Nomada species which look confusingly similar and short of doing DNA analysis, a post mortem or peering at their cheeky bits at very close quarters, it would be foolish for an amateur to attempt a positive identification. Suffice to say that it 'could' be Nomada flava which is known to predate on the Tawny mining bee - so, since they were both found in the same area, there is some circumstantial support for the suggested identification.
Date
04.05.2005
Sighting
Found on the evergreen 'cherry laurel' flowers by pondside.
The female Nomada enters the underground nest of the mining bee and lays her egg, cuckoo fashion, in the prepared nest. I have read a report which suggests that the male Nomada sprays the female during mating with the scent of the mining bee therefore making the female 'acceptable' in the mining bees nest.
It was noticeable that these cuckoo bees were quite 'macho' around the Prunus laurocerasus flowers, chasing off other bees and insects which happened to get in their way.
They are most commonly on the wing from April to June, which is a bit early for the true wasp population.
no common name
Nomada goodeniana
Despite it's rather wasplike appearance, Nomada goodeniana is a true bee. It will usually be found closely associating with Andrena ground nesting bees - for the very good reason that it indulges in cleptoparasitism.
Date
22.04.2009
Sighting
Four specimens seen inspecting Andrena nigroaenea nest entrance tunnels.
I was able to watch Nomada females land close to Andrena nigroaenea nest entrance tunnels and apparently 'sniff' the tunnel to check whether there was either an 'owner' at home or, an open pollen stocked cell available.
Eventually, when the cell has been stocked with pollen, the Andrena will lay her own egg on it and seal the cell. The sequence of events there after is uncertain but at some stage the Nomada larva will dispose of the Andrena larva and then pupate to emerge the following Spring.
23.04.2010
Females again seen parasitising Andrena nigroaenea nests.
Instead of digging its own underground nest site, the female Nomada goodeniana waits until an Andrena female has excavated a nest tunnel and has provisioned a nest cell with pollen for her larva. This will take many pollen gathering trips and the Nomada female will take advantage of the Andrena's absence to visit the cell and lay her own egg in it.
The rather vicious looking jaws seen in the third image are required to break out of the nest cell wall.
Having thus taken all the time consuming hard work out of preparing a nest site, the successful regeneration of the Nomada goodeniana species can take place in a fairly short time span and the adult bees are unlikely to be seen outside the months of April to June.
no common name
Nomada sp (striata?)
Although there is not much of a family resemblance to the previous species, it has been suggested that this is another member of the Nomada genus of cleptoparasitic bees.
Date
24.04.2005
Sighting
Found on nettles.
This is a numerous group and precise identification is very difficult without close microscopic examination. Of the similar looking species, N. striata is suggested purely on distribution map data.
These are solitary insects which lay their eggs in the nests of other bees to be reared by the host - cuckoo fashion.
Red-tailed bumblebee
Bombus lapidarius
When I first found this large bee clambering on coarse vegetation by a ditch, I assumed that it had just emerged from pupation and had not yet stretched its wings. But a couple of hours later, it was still in the same area - with its wings still in the same waxy, crumpled state.
Compassion took over. I offered it a teaspoonful of honey and water mix - and it scoffed the lot. That gave me the chance to see it's long, strong black tongue in action lapping up the liquid.
Date
04.08.2003
Sighting
Found on coarse vegetation by a ditch.
So, now what? One can hardly take a wingless bee to the vet, so I fell back on the theory, 'let Nature take care of its own'. Next day it was nowhere to be found and in its flightless state it wouldn't have got far.
A chat with a bee-keeper revealed that this mal-formed wing condition is not as rare a condition as one might imagine. But the reason we don't come across it often in the wild, is that it is Nature's way for the weak and vulnerable to be the first to succumb to predators. No room for sentiment in Nature.
........... Or, was my act of kindness the wrong diet at the wrong time. Should one simply not intrude at all and let Mother Nature get on with things in her own inimitable way?
She has certainly coped pretty well, so far.
Tawny mining bee
Andrena fulva
There are some 60 species of Andrena mining bees in the UK. One of the most colourful is the female Andrena fulva with her thorax covered in rich russet hair and her abdomen banded in burnt orange. The males on the other hand are much more representative of their common name, having a tawny thorax and a paler abdomen. They are also smaller, slimmer and have white hair on the face.
Date
12.04.2005
Sighting
Suddenly aware of much activity in front garden.
These are 'solitary' bees, so it is a case of one female to one hole in the ground. Each hole is the entrance tunnel to an underground nursery of several individual cells branching off from the main tunnel. The female will stock each cell with pollen and nectar for a single larva that will remain underground until emerging next spring. Each female will prepare many such nursery cells to ensure the future of the species. In order to prevent loose soil particles falling into the tunnel the top few centimetres are solidified by fluid produced by the female. But when the nursey is completed the entrance hole will be plugged to deter intruders.
Early in the season they obviously have to take advantage of whatever happens to be in flower (as evidenced by the female in the upper image on a dandelion) but, from May onwards they are recognised as a principal pollinator of current bushes and fruit trees and should be seen very much as the gardener's friend.
27.04.2006
Mining activity starts 2 weeks later this year.
10.04.2009
28.04.2008
Female, first of the year, seen around Pulmonaria in back garden.
First females of the year, seen around Pulmonaria in back garden.
Their mines can be found in areas of sandy soil and are easily recognised by the volcano shaped mounds of excavated material topped by pencil diameter sized holes. They often choose to do their mining in grassy lawns and cause some concern about children being stung in the foot. But their 'sting' is very weak and not able to penetrate so they are incapable of causing harm.
Common wasp
Vespula vulgaris
The Common wasp is a social species and mirrors the reproductive habits of the German wasp below.
It can be quite difficult to distinguish between these two species. The abdomen markings, although markedly different in the two species featured here, can be quite variable and are not a safe identification feature.
Date
Sighting
07.10.2005
Tired specimen found dying on indoor window ledge.
13.02.2006
Young queen found stretching her legs on a mild day.
05.03.2006
After a week of freezing weather, warm sun lured out another young queen.
25.03.2008
Queen found on window in warm sunshine.
31.07.2009
Large nest removed from garden compost heap.
The young queen pictured below was found on a mild February day, presumably having just awakened from hibernation. She was a bit slow and unsteady on her feet for a while but gradually became more active and positive before flying off.
The large pear shaped nest, seen below, was dug out of a compost heap after the occupants started to become aggresive in late July. It measured 330mm in diameter by 380mm tall and was accessed through a 100mm entrance tunnel 60mm wide. 'Quite a substantial structure and yet incredibly light weight.
I had intended to slice it open to see the internal structure but the intricate thin walled honeycomb construction seemed so delicate that I'm sure the whole thing would have just crumbled away.
As it was, parts of the outer wall were damaged and some of the fumigated occupants fell out. Amongst them was the 12mm immature larva shown below. Unlike many insect larvae that have to fend for themselves from birth, the larvae of the social bees and wasps are quite helpless at this stage and rely on constant care and feeding from the worker population.
However, the females of the two species do exhibit distinct facial markings - if you are prepared to look them straight in the eye! The Common wasp has a prominent dark 'anchor' mark between its eyes, whereas the German wasp has three small dots.
The markings on the males can be more variable and it is often difficult to positively identify them.
German wasp
Vespula germanica
This is one of the social wasps which build football shaped nests of wood pulp paper which can contain hundreds, even thousands of egg cells. Some species suspend their nests from branches or overhead beams but this particular species builds underground, initially taking over an old mouse hole or similar cavity, before excavating a considerable chamber - up to a foot across, to house the colony.
Date
Sighting
08.06.2005
Nest site located at foot of flowering cherry tree in paddock.
26.06.2005
Nest site still active at 01.30hrs
18.08.2005
A very sleepy queen, found in a shed, was released onto a hollow tree stump.
09.04.2008
20mm queen found indoors - not for long!
There are several wasp species which tend to look superficially similar and the casual viewer is unlikely to distinguish between them - anything with yellow and black stripes is - a wasp! For those with the courage to look a wasp in the eye before swatting it, one of the key identification features are the facial markings.
Images two and three, showing three little black dots between the eyes, identify these wasps as either V. germanica or V. austriaca. We then have to look at the yellow marks at the rear of the thorax (first image above).
V. germanica has four, V. austriaca has two.
As the underground nest grows in size (the one I found was at the base of a flowering cherry tree), so it becomes necessary to excavate soil to accomodate it. The third image shows a worker leaving the nest with a soil ball, twice the size of her head, held between her mandibles. This will be deposited some distance from the nest site and the worker will return with wood pulp scraped from wooden fencing to make more paper for the nest material.
I always thought that wasps went to sleep at night. But the bottom image, taken with flash, clearly shows that these ones were still active at the nest site at 01.30hrs. Whether they were on normal routine guard duty or had come up for some fresh air on a warm night, I cannot say.
Wasps may also be seen carrying paralized flies, caterpillars, etc. back to the nest to feed the young grubs but, the adults favour a sweet diet for themselves and will take nectar, ripe fruit and, as we all know, picnic jam. They can become quite inebriated on fermenting apple juices.
As autumn draws on, the old queen, her faithful workers and the males will all die off leaving just a few young fertilised females to survive the winter as next year's queens.
The fertilised queen (upper two images) will overwinter and will start to build the nest on her own in the spring, laying an egg as each cell is completed. Within a few weeks the first workers, all females, will start to hatch and will take over the building duties allowing the queen to concentrate on laying all those hundreds, thousands of eggs in a few short months. It will be mid to late summer before male wasps will be produced.
Potter wasp
Ancistrocerus, .........or Gymnomerus species ?
This wasp, one of a great many 'solitary wasps', had constructed a very thin walled tube of mud in the crevice of the pointing between two bricks on the house wall.
The upper image captures the moment that I first saw her, working away head down in her nesting 'pot'. Based on what happened next, I presume that she had placed a paralized grub or insect within the cell, because she eventually backed out (second image), turned around and reversed back into the 'pot' tail first. I presume again, that this was to accomplish the act of ovipositing an egg on the food source.
Date
20.06.2005
Sighting
Nest found about 1m above ground in the pointing of the house wall, facing east.
She then flew off and I would guess that her next task would be to seal the cell with a plug of mud and to prepare another nest cell. Although I waited some 40 minutes, I did not see her return.
However, two days later (lower image) the nest had been increased in height, capped off and given a second external coat of reinforcing mud all round.
The upper image shows that the abdomen is 50% black with one thin yellow band just behind the thorax and then four thin yellow bands on the terminal abdominal segments.
03.11.2005
Surprisingly, at this time of year, the capping of the nest has been holed - by predators perhaps? The hole is hardly big enough for an emerging potter or a parasitising RubyTail
There are a number of very similarly marked wasps and short of microscopic examination it is well nigh impossible to positively identify individual specimens. However, it has been suggested that from the shape and position of the nest, this may 'possibly' be a Gymnomerus species.
Ruby-tail wasp
'Chrysis ignita' group species
One might have thought that a colourful insect like this might have been easy to identify but, as with the species above, there are several different species which look very similar so, it is convenient to classify them as belonging to the group of which 'Chrysis ignita' is the most common.
Date
20.06.2005
Sighting
Watched two specimens parasitise a potter wasp's nest by the house front door.
22.06.2006
First sighting of the year of 1 wasp in back garden.
29.05.2008
First sighting of the year of 1 wasp in back garden.
This is a parasitic wasp and it parasitises the potter wasp above. I was able to watch two of these metallically coloured red and green wasps patiently wait until the potter had flown off, and then quite leisurely take turns to enter the potter's nest head first, turn around inside the 'pot' (they are only about half the size of the potter), and with head just level with the pot's entrance, and much twitching of their antennae, presumably lay their own egg along side the potter's egg.
Whereas the 'potter' grub would feed on the food source that the female had provided, the Ruby-tail grubs will feed on the 'potter' larvae.