ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA RECORDER’S REPORT 2023
ADRIAN KNOWLES
I set out below some interesting records from the last year. I am unfortunately being hampered by database issues, having had to change my PC recently, so apologies if I have overlooked a species of note you told me about previously, but my unreliable memory has since forgotten.
Previous reports have documented the discovery of the solitary bee Osmia cornuta in Ipswich and this spring David Basham confirmed their continued presence in the east side of Ipswich near Alexandra Park. This species was first recorded in Britian in 2017 and remains rarely recorded although perhaps overlooked or misidentified. It bears a resemblance to both the common Red Mason Bee O. bicornis (females with two ‘horns’ on the face) and distinctly more localised than O. bicolor (general colour scheme of black and orange hairs). In Ipswich O. cornuta seems to have a fondness for cherry blossom and can be active quite early in the year, so it is a good reason to get outside on sunny spring days to start your survey season. O. bicolor has the interesting habit of nesting in old snail shells so tends to be found in areas with more calcareous soils, notably Breckland. It has not been recorded in the Ipswich area.
One of the most impressive, if currently transient, members of our bee fauna is undoubtedly the large Violet Carpenter Bee Xylocopa violacea. Members may be most familiar with this or a closely related sibling species from holidays around the
Mediterranean, since its large size and striking black coloration with metallic purpleblack wings makes it obvious even to the non-specialist. In recent years, Britain has seen occasional vagrants and there is some evidence of attempted breeding. In August 2022, Mandy Cottrell photographed a female (assumed to be violacea) in her garden at Needham Market, to the north-west of Ipswich. Intriguingly, further (unproven) reports from members of the public from Needham Market during 2023 suggest that over-wintering/breeding might well have occurred there. This year, Mandy did not manage to repeat her sighting of 2022 but, following an appeal posted by Hawk Honey in a village forum, a number of other people claimed to have seen this bee around the town. Hawk and I visited Needham Market in August but were unable to find anything. Further searches for this bee will also be on the “to do” list for 2024.
David Basham has continued monitoring work at a series of Countryside Stewardship fields near Westerfield, to the north of Ipswich. In June, he recorded the Large Garden Bumblebee Bombus ruderatus there. Not so many years ago, this bumblebee was thought to be heading towards extinction in the UK and is now listed as a Species of Principal Importance in England (SPIE) under Section 41 the 2006 Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act. Fortunately, it has undergone a modest turn of fortune in recent years. Like most bumblebees, it operates at a landscape scale, so wildlife-friendly farmland is a vital habitat for it.
In May 2023 I added Pemphredon austriaca to the Suffolk list, which is reported in greater detail elsewhere in these transactions. Over the summer, I have attempted to do some recording in the Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s new Martlesham Wilds reserve. This yielded another new county species in the form of the digger wasp Mimumesa unicolor. This slender black wasp is a scarce, but locally widespread, denizen of southern and south-eastern England that appears to have started expanding its range rapidly in the last few years (Mike Edwards, pers. comm.). This may be the first record for East Anglia. The Martlesham Wilds surveys have already yielded some other interesting records, including the nationally scarce bee Andrena trimmerana, the rare Nomada fulvicornis and the reed-stem specialist Hylaeus pectoralis.
The solitary bee Colletes cunicularius is currently undergoing a dramatic range expansion in Britain. Genetic work is ongoing to try and establish if this is being driven by colonisation from mainland Europe or a spectacular spread from its traditional heartland on the coast of north-west England and north Wales. The earliest Suffolk record of which I am aware is from 2017 when Hawk Honey found it nesting at Lackford Lakes Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve north of Bury St Edmunds. Since then, it has been recorded from a handful of sites scattered across much of the county. This bee seems to rapidly take to new areas, so that on 24 March 2023 Paul Kitchener estimated activity in excess of 150 individuals from a nesting aggregation at Shottisham in the south-east of the county.
Another relatively new arrival to Britain is the cuckoo-bee Nomada zonata. It was first noted in mainland Britain in 2016 and has now been widely recorded in southeast England and the south Midlands. It attacks the nests of the common mining bee Andrena dorsata so should not have a shortage of opportunities. In Suffolk, it has
reserve, Paul Oldfield found it in his Felixstowe garden, and Paul Kitchener photographed this specimen at Shottisham.
Another recent arrival to Suffolk are wasps in the genus Nitela. I found N. lucens at Bury St Edmunds in 2021 and Ross Piper found N. borealis also in the west of the county. On 18 July 2023, Hawk caught what appears to be another N. lucens from Lackford Lakes but I’m getting a second opinion on the specimen, because they are difficult species to separate.
The cuckoo-bee Nomada conjungens is a long-standing member of the British fauna but has always been considered rare with, until recently, no records from East Anglia. Then, in 2018 I found it twice in two days, from Lavenham and Ipswich. On 20 May 2023, Hawk Honey found it in a field margin at Horham in the north of the county. This bee attacks the nests of the mining bee Andrena proxima. Although considered to be nationally rare, this Andrena appears to like the heavier soils of central Suffolk where it can be found quite readily foraging on Cow Parsley, often in churchyards. The possible northwards spread of N. conjungens may be another sign of changes driven by global warming?
I have continued monitoring work for key species within the Center Parcs holiday village near Elveden, Thetford Forest. The chalky, yet essentially sandy, soils favour several scarce species, including the small mining bees Andrena alfkenella and A. minutuloides, both seen on 13 July 2023. Another Section 41 SPIE was found here: the Five-banded Digger Wasp Cerceris quinquefasciata. The Ivy Bee Colletes hederae was a new species for the site this year.
The Bryony Bee Andrena florea is well established in south-east Suffolk since its apparently recent colonisation of Suffolk. This year I finally managed to add it to my ‘village list’ for Capel St Mary, where I live. Several were seen at White Bryony vines growing in a hedgerow along Red Lane in the south of the village. Another pleasing record found close to Capel was the small digger wasp Rhopalum clavipes. I managed to rear two individuals from Oak Marble Galls collected as part of my survey of Pemphredon austriaca. I have a handful of records from West Suffolk, but this discovery may be a first for the vice county of East Suffolk.
On 26 July 2023, consultant Andy Musgrove caught a great national rarity near Sizewell. This is the Fen Mason Wasp, Odynerus simillimus – another Section 41 SPIE and another aculeate that was thought to be on the verge of extinction in Britain. Modern records are restricted to Essex and East Anglia, with the eastern Norfolk
I would like to thank various recorders/photographers for posting their observations to the Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service because it is too time consuming for me to capture all the data to make meaningful records. Paul Oldfield continues to find interesting species in his garden (old and new), with notable records this year including the mining bee Andrena pilipes and the digger wasp Nysson spinosus. Thanks in particular also go to Steve Babbs, Joe Underwood, Stewart Belfield, Sam Chamberlin and Paul Kitchener for posting their records.
Adrian Knowles
Jessups Cottage, London Road, Capel St Mary, IP9 2JR hymenoptera@sns.org.uk