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Newsletter 109 Spring 2022
Suffolk Naturalists ’ Society

If you think this issue is looking a bit thin, that’s because it is. WE NEED YOU, this newsletter is only as good as the contributions put in to it. So let’s be having you,

Editorial Hawk Honey 2 Nomad bees in my Felixstowe garden Paul Oldfied 3 Botany, Birds and Babingtons Patrick Armstong 10 Walk like an Egyptian Goose Trevor Goodfellow 14 New hoverfly to the UK Alan Thornhill 16 Return of the Buzzard Richard Stewart 18 The Peanut - loving Woodpecker Rasik Bhadresa 20 Right under my feet Hawk Honey 22 Contents ISSN 0959-8537 Published by the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society c/o The Hold, 131 Fore Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IP4 1LN Registered Charity No. 206084 © Suffolk Naturalists’ Society

Suffolk Wildlife Trust courses

Suffolk Wildlife Trust has scheduled several courses at its nature reserves over the coming months, such as:

Bird ID, with Paul Holness at Lackford Lakes on Sunday, August 21

Introduction to Hedgehogs, with Paula Baker at Carlton Marshes on October 16

Winter Bird ID, with Paul Holness at Lackford Lakes on Sunday December 4

You can find details of all of the Trust’s courses for adults via this link:

www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/wildlearning

The new schedule of Wildlife Live Webinars begins again in the Autumn with topics such as:

The Magic of Nests with Nicolae Coe on Wednesday evening, November 2

Slugs with Ian Bedford on Monday evening, November 28

As well as Wader ID, with Chris Mills, Planting for Pollinators with Sonya Burrows and Native hedgerows with Helen Bynum yet to have dates confirmed

To find details of all the Trust’s Wildlife Live Webinars, just follow this link:

https://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/wildlife-live-webinars

For any questions or course suggestions, please contact wildlearning@suffolkwildlifetrust.org

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Hi,

As you know, I’m now taking over the editorship of the White Admiral from Ben. Ben has done an awesome job of producing an excellent mag over the past years and I hope to be able to follow in his footsteps and give you the reader and member a newsletter to enjoy.

I must apologise for the lateness of my first issue coming out, as trying to get to grips with new software and learning new ways of working has added to the delay. So, without further ado lets get on with this issue.

A bit about me.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been an avid naturalist for many years and more recently, an Hymenopterist studying bees and wasps with passion. I currently work full time for Suffolk Wildlife Trust as a Visitor Experience Officer at Lackford Lakes Nature reserve. But that’s enough about me, I now want to hear from you. The newsletter is only as good as the contributions that are put in to it, whether those contributions are an interesting sighting, a study on a particular species, or anything to do with the natural history of Suffolk. If it’s interesting to you, then it may be interesting to others and here is the place to share that information. Ping it to me in an email (whiteadmiralnewsletter@gmail.com) or put pen to paper and post it to my address and I will do the rest. Remember to include photos if possible.

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Editor Hawk Honey 1 Felix Cottage Athelington Rd, Horham, IP21 5EG whiteadmiralnewsletter@gmail.com
From the editor

Nomad Bees in my Felixstowe Garden.

This is a review of the Nomad Bee species that I have recorded in my Felixstowe garden during the years 2020 and 2021. A total of thirtyfour species have been recorded within the British Isles of which twenty have been reliably recorded in Suffolk. A further four species were documented by Morley within the county but these are probably erroneous.

Nomadafabricianamale above, female below.

Recorded May/June 2020 and late March to the end of May in 2021. A common and very widely distributed species within Suffolk.

Host species include the Andrena Mining Bees A. bicolor, A.nigroaenea and A. flavipes, all of which were present within the garden.

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Fabricus nomad bee (Nomada fabriciana)

Flavous Nomad Bee (Nomada flava).

A female was present on three dates in late May 2021.One of the more common Nomada species within Suffolk. Host species include primarily Andrena scotica

but may also include A.nigroaenea and A.nitida all of which were recorded in the garden in 2021.

Blunthorn Nomad Bee (Nomada flavopicta)

Recorded in both 2020 and 2021 with records from late June to early August. Most commonly seen in July.

In Adrian Knowles review of Solitary Bees in Suffolk (Suffolk Nat. Soc. 53 (2017)

he states that the only known records up to that date within the county were a handful from The Brecks but since then there has also been records from Felixstowe Ferry as well as in North Essex near Manningtree.

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Host species are the Melitta Bees of which Clover Melitta (Melitta leporina) is present in the garden. Photos below.

Only recorded in 2021 with records of males only from the 21st March through to the 20th April.

A once scarce species that has under-gone a considerable range expansion in recent years, especially along the coastal zone.

Its recent distribution and status is directly linked to that of its host species, the Yellow-legged Mining Bee (Andrena flavipes) which has also under-gone a very similar range expansion.

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Painted Nomad Bee (Nomada fucata).

Only recorded in 2021 with a male and female noted on several dates from May 5th to 23rd . In Suffolk there are a scattering of records along the coastal zone with fewer noted in The Brecks.

Host species include Grey-gastered Mining Bee (Andrena tibialis) and Large Gorse Mining Bee (Andrena bimaculata) both of which I found in the garden for the first time in 2021.

A.tibialis above and A.bimaculata right.

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Orange-horned Nomad Bee (Nomada fulvicornis)

Only recorded in 2021 with several sightings during the second half of May.

A common and widespread species within the County.

Hosts include Andrena nitida and A.scotica, both of which are present in the garden.

Recorded in late March and April in both 2020 and 2012. A relatively common species noted across the county

The host species include Chocolate Mining Bee, Andrena scotica and probably Trimmer’s Mining Bee A.trimmerana. Both of which are present in the garden.

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Gooden’s Nomad Bee (Nomada goodeniana) Marsham’s Nomad Bee (Nomada marshamella) Above. Nomada goodeniana. Right top. Female N. marshamella Right bottom. Male N. marshamella

Variable Nomad Bee (Nomada zonata)

Identified by Steven Falk this female was photographed on the 11th July 2020 and is the only record so far.

A recent colonist within England and rare in Suffolk.

Host species is the Short-fringed Mining Bee Andrena dorsata, a species that so far I have not recorded within the garden but the presence of this insect possibly suggests that this species may be nearby.

Nomad Bee sp. (Nomada sp)

Due to difficulties with identification due to some species been variable with regards to colouration some Nomads are best left unidentified unless the diagnostic features are noted. These are however didgy’s of what I believe to be a Fork-jawed Nomad Bee, Nomada ruficornis. Female. .

Recorded on three dates in the first week of June 2021. Unfortunately I will have wait until this year and see if I can’t persuade one to show me its jaw structure to be certain of its identity

References. Knowles, A.P. A review of Solitary Bee of Suffolk, Suffolk Nat Soc 2017, Volume 53.

Falk, S. Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland 2016 revised ed.

Acknowledgements My thanks to Steven Falk, Ian Beavis and Louise Hislop for putting me in the right direction regarding identification or confirming some of the species.

Compiled by Paul Oldfield February 2022.

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SNS 2023 Conference

Sat 4th & 11th March 2023

The SNS 2023 conference Into the Wild will look at different aspects of the rewilding debate. We are delighted to announce that we have the following confirmed speakers to date:

• Prof. Alistair Driver Director of Rewilding Britain, and Honorary Professor in Applied Environmental Management at the University of Exeter.

• William Sutherland, the Miriam Rothschild Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Cambridge and President of the British Ecological Society

• Matt Gooch, Suffolk Wildlife Trust Broads Reserves Warden

• Dr Keith Kirby, Visiting Researcher at the University of Oxford

The conference will be held online on two half days, Saturday 4th March and Saturday 11th March 2023.

There will be a small admission fee. Everyone welcome!

Contributions to White Admiral

Deadline for copy for Autumn issue is: 1st September

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Botany, Birds and Babingtons

It has ofttimes been remarked that there is but one English intellectual family. Sometimes sons and daughters follow their parents for generations, and individuals from similar families tend to marry one another. There was a Fellow of the Royal Society in every one of five generations of Darwin’s from the birth of Erasmus Darwin in 1751 to the death of Sir Charles Galton Darwin in 1962. Moreover, the Darwin’s intermarried with the Wedgwood’s three times in two generations. Margaret Elizabeth Darwin (granddaughter of evolutionist Charles Darwin, 1809-1882) married Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes (1887-1982) linking the Darwin family to that of Keynes, with its host of scientists, medical men, writers and economists. Sir Ralph Vaughan Williams, (1872-1958) the great English composer married another Margaret, great granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood, and niece of Charles Darwin. Even when there were no marriages, close friendships developed between comparable families, perhaps through shared experiences at university.

The Babington’s, a distinguished Anglo-Irish family, with several significant English branches, have produced noted lawyers, divines and academics (and also politicians, army and naval officers) for centuries. The middle name of Thomas Macaulay – politician, lawyer and historian – was Babington. Named after Thomas Babington, his uncle, a historian, philanthropist, politician, educator and abolitionist.

Churchill Babington (1821 -1889) and his cousin Charles Cardale Babington (1808-1895) were both well-known East Anglian naturalists; both went to St John’s College, Cambridge, both were vocal abolitionists and were associated with the evangelical wing of the Church of England. Both were highly distinguished in the humanities as well as the sciences.

Cardale was a contemporary of Charles Darwin at Cambridge (there’s that name again). They competed on the field of beetle collecting. Despite this or, perhaps because of it, he was asked to describe the Dytiscidae (water beetles) that Darwin brought back from the Beaglevoyage to South America. For 55 years Cardale was secretary of the Ray Club, the successor to the Rev’d Professor John Henslow’s soirees, that so influenced Darwin, and indeed Cardale was also a close friend of Henslow and succeeded

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him as Professor of Botany in 1861.

Cardale Babington collected plants throughout East Anglia, including Suffolk. He is remembered particularly for AManualofBritishBotanyand TheFloraofCambridgeshire, and his long-time editing of the journal AnnalsandMagazineofNaturalHistory. He was particularly interested in the brambles, the genus Rubus, distinguishing over 40 species. Babington’s Leek, Alliumampeloprasumbabingtonii,was named after him.

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Above.CardaleBabington,ProfessorofBotanyatCambridge,succeeding theSuffolknaturalistJohnHenslow.

But Cardale Babington was also a distinguished archaeologist and student of architecture. He was one of the founders of the Cambrian [Welsh] Archaeological Society, and its chairman for many years. He contributed to the ArchitecturalHistory ofCambridge(R Willis and J W Clarke, CUP, 1886). He was very much in the Victorian field naturalist mould, travelling throughout the British Isles, including the Channel Isles, and he visited Iceland in 1846.

Churchill Babington studied Classics at Cambridge. In 1845 he obtained the Hulsean Prize for his essay The Influence of Christianity in promoting the Abolition of SlaveryinEurope. The following year he was elected to a fellowship of his college and took holy orders, From 1848 to 1861 he was vicar of Horningsea, near Cambridge, and from 1866 to his death he was Rector of Cockfield in Suffolk.

Like the Rev’d Prof John Henslow before him, he managed to combine ministering to a parish in Suffolk with a professorship at Cambridge. From 1865 to 1880 he held the Disney Professorship of Archaeology at Cambridge. He was particularly interested in Greek, Roman and other Mediterranean antiquities, but was also a member of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, and the passage below was taken its journal:

His last work was the Birds of Suffolk (1886), a storehouse of facts relating to the ornithology of this county, which took him four years to arrange and is a monument of conscientious labour. We are informed that the Flora of Suffolk, now, being prepared for publication by the Rev. Dr. Hind, rector of Honington, will owe much to the assistance and advice of Dr. Babington.

His publication discussing the authenticity of early Suffolk records of the now extinct Eskimo curlew was important, and he also was interested in conchology.

The Babington cousins were linked to naturalists and other important scholars throughout the country through a network of kinship, marriage and friendship. (See Armstrong, 2020, for a note on the importance of clergy network to the development of natural history in Suffolk.) A brief consideration of the Babington’s lives and work serves to emphasise three points:

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The enormous debt that today’s naturalists owe to their Victorian predecessors.

The extraordinary breadth of scholarship owned by these nineteenth century authorities: they were true polymaths. Many were highly distinguished in the humanities as well as the sciences.

The importance of the network of family and personal friendship links. The Victorian naturalists were often related to each other, corresponded regularly, exchanged specimens and co-operated on important publication projects, to the eternal benefit of natural history and other branches of knowledge.

Reference

Armstrong, P H, 2020. The parson-naturalist in Suffolk, SuffolkNaturalHistory, 56, 27-35.

Jolimont, Western Australia

May 2022

Left: Title page of TheFloraofSuffolk, largely written by Churchill Babington

Is your contact information correct?

From time to time, we change email address, or home address and we forget to let others know. If you’ve changed your details recently, please let us know by contacting enquires@sns.org.uk

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Walk like an Egyptian Goose

Trevor Goodfellow

I have previously written here about a pair of Egyptian geese that frequently visit me. In 2014 a pair of adults brought 4 goslings waddling across the field to the pond.

Since then, the male ‘Eric’ has been coming daily, outside breeding time, for a hand full of corn. He learnt that there was food for him when, back then, I had some bantams which he watched carefully when and where I fed them.

‘How do you know it is the same one’ I hear you say, well he has an ‘X’ marking on his bill and of course he is quite tame to me now, although he is extremely cautious of anyone else. At this point it is worth mentioning that he recognises me whatever I am wearing, and also has become familiar with my car, so he sees me coming up the drive and is ready in position for food when I get out of the car. I can walk very close to them when in the garden and it doesn’t bother them, but anyone else, they run away.

Over the years he has had about 3 mates: the first disappeared, the second had a broken leg and died, and the current mate which also became lame, her damaged leg finally fell off just below the knee. She is now coping well and feeding. She has adapted to walking after a fashion but gets frustrated when struggling to turn around and makes a lot of fuss.

It is my suspicion that these 2 females which became injured at the same time of year, may have been attacked by a fox while on their nest as they often nest on the ground, usually in a hollow tree.

Their habits change according to the time of year and as they have nested here at home once, I have observed that after identifying a nest site and mating, the male hangs around often at a distance while the female sits on the nest in January or February. She will lay an egg a day approximately. When the clutch is complete (5 - 10 eggs) she will cover the eggs and hurry noisily to feed and have a bath and a drink, then back to the nest, always protected by the male who will chase off mallard and just about anything else. By the time the young can fly, their parents deem them to be independent, this results in the young being eventually driven off and certainly not welcome to share food. This leaves the parents to themselves apparently monogamous or at least ‘till death do us part’.

I suspect that this year Eric and his mate nested early as he was returning alone for a

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Day one, Eric’s first call 2014

while, then last month she was injured so they both turned up daily. Eric arrived alone for a while which could mean a second attempt at nesting as they were mating recently, or, as I suspect, his mate has been taken by a fox. With one leg, she might not be able to safely roost in a tree top as they do regularly.

Since writing this article I was informed by a friend that a one-legged Egyptian goose was seen at Flempton golf course, and subsequently, Eric was identified with her. They are rearing a pair of goslings so maybe they will all fly back here when the young fledge, as they have in the past.

It is comforting for me to know that Eric and his family are safe and that he flies from Flempton to Thurston for his hand full of corn.

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Female with injured leg. Eric

New Hoverfly ( Diptera ) to the U.K.

Whilst visiting West Stow Country Park in July 2021, I noticed a dark hoverfly with a red abdomen on a fencepost by the road that runs past the park. I didn't recognise it but, not being an expert in hoverflies, that wasn't particularly significant. Nevertheless, I photographed it and later attempted to identify it using a few specialist Internet sites, particularly Diptera.info.

Although the hoverfly bore a likeness to Brachypalpoides lentus, a species widespread in the UK, it seemed to more strongly resemble Chalcosyrphus piger. However, I could find no evidence that this was found in the UK. So, I posted the pictures on the UK Hoverflies Facebook group and the group's resident experts confirmed that it was C. piger and that, indeed, it had not previously been recorded in the UK. The hind femora are more strongly swollen than in B. lentus, and the frons is wider and more silvery.

C. piger is widespread across Earth's northern latitudes, and has been

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Chalcosyrphus piger

recorded in several European countries, including Netherlands and Belgium. Perhaps it's not surprising that Suffolk, across the North Sea, should provide the first UK sighting, although it's unknown how the species arrived here. It has an association with a range of coniferous tree species and the larvae are thought to live in damaged or rotting tissue of pine trees. The fly seen at West Stow was alongside a belt of Scots Pines and close to several piles of logs. West Stow Country Park has a policy of leaving the trunks of trees close to where they fall, and stumps to rot naturally.

This sighting and the biology of C. piger are discussed more fully in Thornhill et al (2022)

Thornhill, W.A., Pennards, G.W.A., Morris R.K.A. (2022). Chalcosyrphus piger (Fabricius) (Diptera, Syrphidae) new to Britain. Dipterists Digest, 29 (1): 84–86

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are now on Facebook! The Suffolk Naturalist's Society Members Group. If you’re on Facebook and would like to be part of our exciting new group, please email whiteadmiralnewsletter@gmail.com
We

Return of the Buzzard

I can still remember, although it must have been several decades ago, walking around Bromeswell Green with the late Alan Hubbard, who was then the warden. He suddenly stopped to train his binoculars on a large bird close to the river. It was a rough-legged buzzard but at that time any buzzard would have been a memorable record. Now the buzzard has grown in numbers, as indicated by my own personal records, just 11 Suffolk sightings between 2007 and 2010, up to twenty 22 in 2018 and then 32 in 2019. Bearing in mind my main focus would have been on butterflies this was a very welcome increase. Covid-19 then interrupted my records but in the 2020 Suffolk Bird Report, despite the pandemic, many single counts were over 10 with the highest being 28 flying west at Aldeburgh. Some would have been passage birds but there were confirmed breeding reports from 22 Suffolk sites, and I can remember my delight at seeing a pair at Sutton Hoo then returning a few months later when both adults and young were flying together.

Another personal example of a species now described in the 2020 Suffolk Bird Report as 'now a common sight across most of Suffolk' was on a bird walk in Christchurch Park, Ipswich, in March 2019 and led by Philip Murphy. As we approached the higher north end of the park, he correctly predicted that one would be in the air. Their recovery has been assisted by the reduction in gamekeepers, a more enlightened conservation attitude towards birds of prey and the fact that buzzards

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have a catholic diet, ranging from earthworms to birds and rabbits. Often, I see them perched close to railway lines, waiting for anything knocked down by a passing train. Actual records have been helped by the buzzard's large size and the easily recognised cat-like mewing call, often heard before the bird is seen. We have seen them being mobbed, mainly by crows or gulls, over our Ipswich garden and in the Summer 2021 edition of 'White Admiral', I mentioned seeing courtship flight at nearby Picton Avenue. They can also live up to twelve or more years in the wild and species identification also includes a shorter tail than a harrier or red kite and broad wings usually with a noticeable V-shaped upturning of the wingtips.

Often, they can be seen soaring high in the sky and my best view so far was in Spring 2019 along the Brookhill Wood boardwalk on the Foxhall side of Ipswich. The pair ended up flying directly over the heads of the three of us, calling repeatedly and low enough to see the sun on their darker and lighter brown plumage. Then they ascended, finding air thermals so that they scarcely had to move their wings, eventually drifting away and out of sight.

This is a very welcome success story. How long will it be before the red kite also becomes 'a common sight across most of Suffolk'?

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The Peanut - loving Pecker

It is in the month of February when we invariably get a hurrying bird with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the nape (characteristically a male) and a scarlet lower belly in our garden. Whether it is the same male or not is difficult to tell. We have compared the markings in photos from one year to the next but the jury is still out on this. Our visitor, the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is always a lovely winter surprise. To ensure this fine spectacle, we make sure that all our peanut feeders, two in the front garden and two in the back are always full. Now we wouldn’t want to disappoint our visitor, would we?

After his first visit in either late January or early February, he appears to make a routine of visiting in February with increased frequency, a time when we often hear their intense territorial drumming in the local countryside, the Dedham Vale. Not only that, but he also knows where all our feeders are because he visits them all. And so it is not unusual, as long as we are extremely still and quiet, to see this fine-looking omnivore barely two metres away outside our kitchen/diner window expertly pecking and ‘enjoying’ (dare I say?) the peanuts, important winter food! And sometimes he is there for long enough, up to a couple of minutes, to record a film clip. It is then that a frame at a time, you see his accurate and methodical jabbing, the slate-black beak never once hitting the wire netting.

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The shock-absorbing head tilts back before the thrust, stab and grab, the process invariably including the sticky pointed tongue (see inset) for retrieving fragments and licking the beak. But, unlike drumming, the peanut -jabbing is considered, the brain taking stock after each strike and the beak consequently responding to the results of each hit. He looks just like a blacksmith at work, except that the tasty morsels are constantly salvaged. And also what come to his aid are his zygodactyl (two toes facing forward, two back) feet and the stiff tail feathers which otherwise hold it immovably onto the feeder.

This year our annual visitor first came in early February and so just after the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch weekend so could not be recorded but rest assured, the GSW is doing quite well locally. So if you haven’t got a peanut feeder in your garden, perhaps you should invest in one. And who knows, what delights it will bring. However, make sur to keep it filled!

SNS 2023 Conference

Sat 4th & 11th March 2023

The SNS 2023 conference Into the Wild will look at different aspects of the rewilding debate.

The conference will be held online on two half days, Saturday 4th March and Saturday 11th March 2023.

See the full advert on page 4 for details of the speakers

There will be a small admission fee. Everyone welcome!

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Right under my feet

Hawk Honey

Every now and then, myself and a couple of others interested in all thing Hymenopteran, get together for a chat and to discuss plans for the coming year. Such as, where to go, interesting species to find, etc. Earlier this year I mentioned to my comrades that I would like to find a species of bee known as Panurgus.These bees are known as Shaggy bees and there are only two species in the UK, the Large-Shaggy bee and the SmallShaggy bee. Both species are confined the the south east corner of the UK, with Norfolk and Suffolk being their northern most reach.

So, why did I want to find this bee? In the past 78 years of me studying Hymenoptera, I had never come across this species before and I was intrigued to find out how it differed to Andrena sp, which it shared its family traits with in Andrenidae.

It wasn’t until July that I would get to find out and didn’t realise how close it had been to me all along. During a recent event at Lackford Lakes, Will Cranstoun, the West Suffolk Sites Manager sent me a video of two pollen laden bees trying to dig under a stone. My first impressions were that they might be Pantaloon bees (Dasypodahirtipes)but it didn’t look right. Will knew of Pantaloon bees and said they were much smaller than the bees in the video (a good example of how important getting a scale included is in any video/photo).

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Top:A Panurgus

He showed me where he had taken the video, on the path right outside our visitor centre. Sure enough, there were several bees darting back and forth, some using the same entrance hole (7 went into the same hole at one point) in the hard packed ground of the path. A swish of the net and a specimen caught, I was able to look at it much closer and could not see any of the distinguishing features of Andrena, which the females have facial fovea (an area of flattened hairs beside the eye), or Lasioglossum, which has a furrow known as a rima on the last abdominal segment. However, I could see long jet-black hairs covering its face and abdomen. This lead me to believe I had found what I was looking for and it had been under feet all along. I took a specimen so I could confirm the finding by using a microscope and after running it through the keys, it turned out to Panurgusbanksianus, the Large-Shaggy bee.

It’s a species that prefers to nest in compacted ground such as paths and is confined to coastal or heathland sites, such as Lackford Lakes.

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Apollencladfemale Panurgusbanksianus.

Above:Anewlyemergedfemale.

It

is truly amazing how the bee manages to nest on this path. Daily footfall on this path varies from 50 to over 200 people a day, with many people standing still on this spot whilst they hope to catch a glimpse of a Kingfisher. The area is shown in the photo below and it is interesting to watch how bees coming back from a foraging trip manage to find their nest entrances again, despite the soil being constantly disturbed and entrances being covered up. Yet they still persevere and manage to find their way back home. As with most bees, they seem more active when the sun is shining, preferring to stay indoors when it’s a bit cooler. I intend to watch these closely over the coming weeks, to learn more about this species.

Theareawherethebeesnest

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Suffolk Naturalists’ Society Bursaries

The Suffolk Naturalists’ Society offers six bursaries, of up to £500 each, annually. Larger projects may be eligible for grants of over £500 – please contact SNS for further information.

Activities eligible for funding include: travel and subsistence for field work, visits to scientific institutions, scientific equipment, identification guide books or other items relevant to the study.

Morley Bursary - Studies involving insects (or other invertebrates) other than butterflies and moths.

Chipperfield Bursary - Studies involving butterflies or moths.

Cranbrook Bursary - Studies involving mammals or birds.

Rivis Bursary - Studies of the county's flora.

Simpson Bursary - In memory of Francis Simpson. The bursary will be awarded for a botanical study where possible.

Nash Bursary - Studies involving beetles.

Applications should be set in the context of a research question i.e. a clear statement of what the problem is and how the applicant plans to tackle it.

Criteria:

1. Projects should include a large element of original work and further knowledge of Suffolk’s flora, fauna or geology.

2. A written account of the project is required within 12 months of receipt of a bursary. This should be in a form suitable for publication in one of the Society's journals: Suffolk Natural History, Suffolk Birds or White Admiral.

3. Suffolk Naturalists' Society should be acknowledged in all publicity associated with the project and in any publications emanating from the project.

Applications may be made at any time. Please apply to SNS for an application form or visit our website for more details www.sns.org.uk/pages/bursary.shtml.

The opinions expressed in White Admiral are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society. Cover Image - Trichrysis cyanea by Hawk Honey

Suffolk www.sns.org.uk

The Naturalists’ Society

The Suffolk Naturalists’ Society, founded in 1929 by Claude Morley (1874 -1951), pioneered the study and recording of the County’s flora, fauna and geology. It is the seed bed from which have grown other important wildlife organisations in Suffolk, such as Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT) and Suffolk Bird Group (SBG).

Recording the natural history of Suffolk is still the Society’s primary objective. Members’ observations go to specialist recorders and then on to the Suffolk Biological Records Centre at Ipswich Museum to provide a basis for detailed distribution maps and subsequent analysis with benefits to environmental protection.

Funds held by the Society allow it to offer substantial grants for wildlife studies.

Annually, SNS publishes its transactions Suffolk Natural History, containing studies on the County’s wildlife, plus the County bird report, Suffolk Birds (compiled by SBG). The newsletter White Admiral, with comment and observations, appears three times a year. SNS organises two members’ evenings a year and a conference every two years.

Subscriptions to SNS: Individual membership £15; Family/Household membership £17; Student membership £10; Corporate membership £17. Members receive the three publications above.

Joint subscriptions to SNS and SBG: Individual membership £30; Family/Household membership £35; Student membership £18. Joint members receive, in addition to the above, the SBG newsletter TheHarrier.

As defined by the Constitution of this Society its objectives shall be:

2.1 To study and record the fauna, flora and geology of the County

2.2 To publish a Transactions and Proceedings and a Bird Report. These shall be free to members except those whose annual subscriptions are in arrears.

2.3 To liaise with other natural history societies and conservation bodies in the County

2.4 To promote interest in natural history and the activities of the Society.

For more details about the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society contact:

Hon. Secretary, Suffolk Naturalists’ Society, c/o Ipswich Museum, High Street, Ipswich, IP1 3QH. Telephone 01473 400251

enquiry@sns.org.uk

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