Aculeate Hymenoptera Recorder’s Report 2020.

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HYMENOPTERA RECORDER’S REPORT 2020

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ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA RECORDER’S REPORT 2020 ADRIAN KNOWLES

Chris Kirby-Lambert

Undoubtedly, the highlight of this year was a species new to Britain, discovered at a site in Suffolk. On 10 August, Christopher Kirby-Lambert was undertaking survey work at a brownfield site in vice-county East Suffolk (confidential location at present), when he saw and photographed a strikingly red specimen of a Sphecodes bee. This was subsequently identified as Sphecodes albilabris. It is a cleptoparasite, attacking the nests of the mining bee Colletes cunicularius. This is an interesting relationship, because the bulk of the population activity of the two species does not actually overlap. Males and females of this Sphecodes are active in July and August, with the newly mated females then building up their fat reserves, finding shelter and overwintering. They then emerge in March and seek out the nests of C. cunicularius, which is a spring-time species, generally active during April and May. The nests within which the Sphecodes lays her eggs then produce the next generation of Sphecodes in late summer once more. Colletes cunicularius is a scarce species in Suffolk, but one that is extending its range, so new populations of the cleptoparasite may well await discovery in coming years.

There have also been two species recorded in Suffolk for the first time. On 25 May, Stuart Read discovered a small colony of the bee Osmia aurulenta at Landguard Point, Felixstowe. It is one of several species of Hymenoptera that choose to form nests within empty snail shells. It has a slightly “Atlantic” distribution in Britain, being quite common along the English Channel from Kent to

Steven Falk

Sphecodes albilabris male, August 2020, Suffolk .

Osmia aurulenta

Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 56 (2020)


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