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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 53
HYMENOPTERA RECORDER’S REPORT 2017 ADRIAN KNOWLES For a number of years now, the Fields Studies Centre at Flatford Mill has run a course on the identification of bees and wasps. As one might expect, suddenly congregating several ardent Hymenopterists in one place is likely to yield interesting results and so it has, in the last couple of years. Late in 2016, it was drawn to my attention that the year’s course had come across the cleptoparasitic (“cuckoo”) bee Stelis breviuscula. This species attacks the nests of another bee, Heriades truncorum, which is, itself, a relative new-comer to the county, first being seen in 2008. The Heriades has been expanding its range northwards from its Surrey/Sussex stronghold for some years, so it was perhaps inevitable that its cleptoparasite would follow it. Then, the 2017 course yielded the first Suffolk record for over 100 years for the very small mining bee Lasioglossum pauperatum. Claude Morley notes an 1899 capture from Copdock. It is known from a wide scatter of sites around Colchester in north-east Essex, so it was perhaps only a matter of time before it wandered once more back into Suffolk. Or perhaps it has been here all along... Hawk Honey, an enthusiastic attendee at the FSC course, managed to capture the first record within East Suffolk for the “cuckoo” bee Coelioxys rufescens. The only other known modern Suffolk sites for this bee are at Center Parcs, Elveden and in the King’s Forest near West Stow. Last year’s report announced the surprising discovery of another small Lasioglossum new to Suffolk. This was L. sexstrigatum, a species not long added to the British list on the basis of records in Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Its sudden arrival at Purdis Heath, Ipswich, was remarkable. Its discoverer, David Basham, managed to repeat the trick this year, with a second female caught at the same site, in late March. Thus, the 2016 specimen might not be just a vagrant, but the vanguard to a small population at this site. The ruby-tailed wasp Chrysura radians is another recent arrival to Suffolk, being first recorded in 2002. In the last couple of years, I have recorded this Nationally Scarce wasp twice: from waste ground near Sproughton and also Minsmere. Jerry Lee also took this wasp from nearby Dunwich Heath during the summer. The Sproughton site yielded several other scarce species, including the small cuckoo bee Sphecodes niger, Heriades truncorum and the six-banded digger wasp Cerceris quinquefasciata. The Minsmere catch was part of a “bioblitz” event organised by the RSPB, to which SNS Recorders were invited. Despite weather conditions that were indifferent at best, several interesting finds were made, in addition to the Chysura. The Nationally Endangered mining bee Lasioglossum sexnotatum was observed foraging at flowers of a small Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) bush near the visitor centre. This is the most northerly Sandlings record in Suffolk for this bee, although for sheer latitude, the Breckland records maintain the record overall. The Minsmere reserve has been relatively well worked for its Hymenoptera, partly as a result of contract surveys carried out by Mike Edwards. It was therefore something of a surprise to be able to claim a new reserve record, in the form of the mining bee Andrena labiata. Although
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 53 (2017)