So now I'm ready to put up some information about the Solitary bees. I'm sorry it's in the same format as the BB list so you have to click on the link, but there's more info than just a picture, so worth a read. I hadn't know much about solitary bees until recently but I find them fascinating. Here are a few of the possible 224 varieties of solitary bee found in the UK:
www.bumblebeeconservation.org/ashy-mining-bee/The ASHY MINING BEE is an easily identified bee of sandy places, found mostly in the southern part of the UK but there are some found in the west of Scotland
www.bumblebeeconservation.org/ivyminingbee/I have included the IVY BEE because I first found one in my garden last year and had a hunt to identify it. It looks like a chimera of a Common Carder bee at the top end and a large bright wasp at the bottom end. The one I saw wouldn't stay still for long enough for me to get a a good photo. On the distribution map Ivy bees are not shown as reaching into Southern Scotland, but it is spreading further north. The one I saw could be nothing else! They feed largely on ivy, so are the latest solitary bees to fly, but if the ivy is not in flower they will sip from other flowers. Mine was on a garden geranium - Roxanne which I have discovered is sterile but nonetheless popular with many bees and wasps.
www.bumblebeeconservation.org/patchworkleafcutterbee/LEAF CUTTER BEES are fairly common and readily identifiable, not by their appearance but more by their activity of cutting out neat sections of leaves to line their larva holes.
www.bumblebeeconservation.org/goodens-nomad-bee/NOMAD BEES are cuckoo bees ie they are predators on mining bee hosts and tend to resemble the host as part of their disguise. There are 73 species of cuckoo bees in the UK, only 6 of them are BBs, the rest being solitary bees. Cuckoo bees are necessarily rarer than the hosts. I think this one could readily be mistaken for a large hoverfly. Being cuckoos they don't have to collect pollen to feed a brood so tend not to visit many flowers except daisy family flat flowers.
www.bumblebeeconservation.org/redmasonbee/RED MASON BEES are found throughout the UK but predominantly in urban areas, not the countryside. Most people when they put up a bee hotel hope to attract the red mason bee. They are reared commercially to pollinate fruit orchards as they are more efficient at this than honey bees
www.bumblebeeconservation.org/woolcarderbee/I have included The chunky WOOL CARDER BEE because I love their lifestyle! The female combs fibres from woolly leaved plants such as Lamb's Ears and great Mullein, while the males defend the plant against others, sometimes to the death, then the female uses the fibres to line her nest
www.bumblebeeconservation.org/hairy-footed-flower-bee-anthophora-plumipes/The HAIRY FOOTED FLOWER BEE is one of Dave Goulson's favourites, because the male has a hairy fringe on one leg which it uses to stroke the female's face and to cover her eyes during mating - cute and hilarious at the same time. It is an early bee, small and dark for the female, so tends to be confused with a worker BB. It occupies the southern half of the UK.
www.bumblebeeconservation.org/tawnyminingbee/The TAWNY MINING BEE is the most striking of the solitary bees, with a furry red coat. It occurs throughout Britain up to the Central Belt of Scotland. This is the bee whose cuckoo predator, the LARGE BEE FLY, flicks it's eggs into the Tawny bee's nest from the entrance. Females often nest in large groups, in spite of being solitary by name.
There are many many more solitary bees, these are just a sample. If you spot any solitary bees they are just as important to our project as BBs so please tell us about them. If you can get a good clear photo then we can try to identify them.
