www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I was in Dover at the weekend, and though I didn't get a chance to go out anywhere to look for butterflies, I did see quite a few Large Whites around on Saturday in the Temple Ewell area. However, I was intrigued by the very large number of what appeared to be bees. They were along the front gardens of all the houses in the street, and were emerging from (and returning to) dozens of tiny holes in the ground. I was told that this was a September phenomena, but no one knew what they were. Here are some of them - can anyone identify them?

Cheers,

Dave

Hi Dave,

Your bees are Colletes hederae. They are commonly known as the Ivy Bee.

It's a recent arrival to Britain, with the first confirmed records from Dorset in 2001.

http://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=bee/co ... es-hederae

Could you please supply grid reference and date information?

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

They certainly look a little different! Must admit I'd never heard of them so thanks Mark for the prompt.

Mark Colvin wrote:Hi Dave,

Your bees are Colletes hederae. They are commonly known as the Ivy Bee.

It's a recent arrival to Britain, with the first confirmed records from Dorset in 2001.

http://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=bee/co ... es-hederae

Could you please supply grid reference and date information?

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

Thanks for the information and i/d, Mark.

The bees were seen along the front gardens of Chisnall Road, grid ref: TR291436, on Saturday 22nd September. This is apparently at least the third September running they've been seen. The soil is fairly chalky - as you might expect, given the location.

For a solitary bee, there were a lot of them! I assume solitary refers to the fact they have individual burrows.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Many thanks for the grid reference and date information which I'll pass on.

Sadly I can't claim credit for the ID; my good friend Mike Edwards nailed this one.

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

Interesting I was at Noar Hill at the weekend looking for the last Brown Hairstreaks - I found one female my latest ever at this site - but my first encounter was with an embankment that was just alive with bees - several thousand over an area of 40 sq meters or so and they were audible from 20m away. I was going to post asking for I.D. but they were the same Ivy Bees grid reference SU741319 thanks mark.

They also seem to quite like my face. Guess my resemblance to a bare earthen bank is quite striking...

This was in St Blazey, Cornwall on 13th October last year. They nest in my friend's flower bed and swarm his ivy bushes (late flight season to coincide with the late flowering time of ivy)

Cheers,

Gibster.

They're not rampant stingers then, Gibster?

David M wrote:They're not rampant stingers then, Gibster?

Not this particular individual. It took a brief liking to the corner of my eye, which was a tad worrying. Then it deposited a small, orange glob of liquid on my nose and clambered merrily into my hair. Finding neither a mate or food source it left me unmolested.

I ought to point out that I don't normally make a habit of placing bees/wasps/other potentially dodgy insects on my face. These ones seemed quite tolerant though.

I've since learnt that my friend's neighbour pours boiling water down the bee holes in her flower border. Some people are frustratingly stubborn when it comes to not giving nature a chance.

There's a nice page about Ivy Bees at http://psophis.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/ivy-bees.html

Cheers,

Gibster.

Gibster wrote:
I've since learnt that my friend's neighbour pours boiling water down the bee holes in her flower border. Some people are frustratingly stubborn when it comes to not giving nature a chance.

Why???