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Long Melford, Suffolk, 12/4/25
Long Melford, Suffolk, 12/4/25.
Long Melford, Suffolk, 12/4/25.
Nomada zonata was discovered on Jersey in 2011. It was discovered on mainland Britain (Kent and Essex) in 2016. It is now spreading rapidly. It had reached Northants and Norfolk by 2019, Warwickcshire by 2021 and Lancashire by 2024. This follows a spread within NW Europe, and shows it is an expanding species that is capable of flying across quite large stretches of water.
The host is Andrena dorsata, and like that species, it has two generations a year, the first peaking in May and the second in July.
Natural close up on a female of the European Great banded furrow bee, Halictus scabiosae in a yellow flower
Here is a rear end of a little wild bee (Anthophila, Hymenoptera) on a new flower of Wild Sweetpea (Lathyrus vestitus, Fabaceae) in the woods yesterday, see this photo. HBBBT! (San Marcos Pass, 9 April 2025)
Here is a little wild bee (Anthophila, Hymenoptera) on a new flower of Wild Sweetpea (Lathyrus vestitus, Fabaceae) in the woods today. I don't know what it is, maybe it's genus Osmia with a hint of a metallic blue color? This is the first wild bee that I've managed to photograph this year. (San Marcos Pass, 9 April 2025)
On Anthyllis cytisoides.
Alella, Barcelona, Spain
Denston, West Suffolk, 6/4/24
Denston, West Suffolk, 6/4/24
Sphecodes gibbus - the dark-winged blood bee - is a species of cleptoparasitic bee. Their life cycle involves cleptoparasitism, where female bees enter the nests of their host bees (like Halictus and Lasioglossum), consume the host eggs, lay their own, and the new generation emerges in late summer to mate and overwinter.
Denston, West Suffolk, 6/4/24
Denston, West Suffolk, 6/4/24
Denston, West Suffolk, 6/4/24
Melecta females parasitise Anthophora plumipes (hairy-footed flower bee) that nest communally. They explore their host's nesting aggregations in search of finished nests. A female, upon finding a nest, will start digging and breaking open the sealed entrance. She will then lay an egg on the roof of the cell, seal the cell and replug the nest. Anthophora females usually attack the cuckoo bee, but she either flies away or if inside the nest, defends herself with her sting. The Melecta larva hatches a day earlier than the Anthophora's and then pierce and drain the Anthophora egg and any other Melecta eggs that she finds in the cell with their long sickle-shaped mandibles. Only one Melecta larvae survives, as if two are born at the same time one will kill the other. The larvae then feeds on the syrupy mixture of pollen and nectar intended for the Anthophora larvae. The following year a Melecta will emerge from the cell, having consumed the food intended for Anthophora grubs.
Denston, West Suffolk, 6/4/24
Denston, West Suffolk, 6/4/24
Denston, West Suffolk, 6/4/24
Denston, Suffolk, 6/4/25
