I'm currently staying with friends in south-east Oxfordshire, who grow the 'giant scabious' Cephalaria gigantea in their garden. At all times of day and in...
Hi Martin, I've just been doing a bumble session with visitors, around the Order Beds at our local Bot. Garden Open Day. We also noted lots of B. vestalis...
Thanks for that Maggie. I had forgotten that drone B. terrestris look similar to the workers, will check to see if mine are also drones, in which case it would...
Whilst on the subject of Bombus vestalis cuckoo bumbles, can anyone explain the following behaviour? At lunchtime today [dry, sunny, 18°C, strong breeze], I...
hi Maggie, The behaviour you describe does sound very much like a typical insect mating swarm. I have never seen anything like that with Bombus though. Are...
Hi Maggie, I believe that one method male bumblebees use to attract mates is leaving scent marks on a series of prominent spots and flying between these in a...
Hi Stuart & Nigel, Thanks for the info. The number of bumbles involved was amazing - I had put 5 bees in the fridge and there were 5 more circling and ...
Today, lunchtime again, even with high winds, I netted nine B. vestalis males in 20 minutes [released later] and there were still one or two more flying...
Hi maggie, Can you give any hints on how to identify B vestalis in the hand (or tube). What are the key features distinguishing them from B. bohemicus? I have...
Hello, A Soldier Fly http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Insect065L.jpg At first glance it does not look like Stratiomys potamida because of the absence of yellow on the...
Hi Nigel, Yellow adjacent to the white tail. The only way to split B. vestalis from B. bohemicus [males] that I know of without killing and preparing...
Hello there! Two things really, Ages ago I sent a few messages referring to Melecta albifrons, one of our recording chaps found a bee which we decided in the...
Lizzie. I wouldn't worry about sub-species. B. muscorum is good enough. If you are interested in these things though, George assures me that the ssp on the...
Hi all As pretty much a complete novice at observing and identifying bees & wasps (moths are my thing) I wonder if anyone could advise me on a couple of topics...
Lizzie "loaned" me the B. muscorum specimen for the day on our LES stand. A beautiful bumble and good to compare directly with the local B. pascuorums....
Hello, I have just got:Bees,Ant,and Wasps by Pat Willmer (AIDGAP),and yesterday I caught a coelioxys with 12 antennal segments and a sting. It is a female. The...
09.07.2005 my neighbours commented that bumbles [2 yellow bands & buff/white tail]]were again nesting under the floor in their fruit store [access through a...
Hello, http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Fly066.jpg I think this fly may have its target as a bumblebee or a wasp. I do not know what species it is. It could be Conops...
Hello, Mistake. This is a hoverfly. I should have took notice of my first instincts, but it was very warm. Too warm. 27 degrees plus humidity. Should be...
Hi Matt, Nice to see the carpenter bee from Dungeness (I think this is their second record in recent years). The specimen is clearly a male Xylocopa violacea...
The name for the subspecies of Bombus muscorum which is found on both the Outer Hebrides and Shetland (including Fair Isle) is ssp. agricolae Baker, 1996....
Hi Andy, It looks like the hoverfly Chrysotoxum bicinctum [see Plate 4, and Page 129, "British Hoverflies" Stubbs & Falk]. Maggie ... humidity. ... do ... ...
Hi, You are correct, and the book is also correct! In the female, the gaster comes to an elongated point as you mention but this is not counted as a spine. In...
Hi Paul There's "Solitary Wasps" in the Richmond series. Also Michael Archer privately published a book on them but I think it's out of print. HTH Malcolm...
Thank you very much,I am learning English. F Dittlo (France) ... Hi, You are correct, and the book is also correct! In the female, the gaster comes to an...
Hi, As recommended in another post, Solitary Wasps by Yeo and Corbet is an excellent place to start (not for bees obviously). I'm jealous - I moved into my...
Hi Andrew/all I know absolutely nothing about solitary bee & wasp spp, as I mentioned I concentrate mainly on microlepidoptera in my spare time. I do have...
Hi Paul ... I think you are in the right place here for advice! ... In simple terms... no. There is no such work. However the 2 books suggested (Corbet & Yeo...
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