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| Colletes hederae |
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| Colletes hederae leaving burrow |
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| Earth bank supporting Ivy Bee colony - the nest holes extended over 50m |
This species is unusual for a solitary bee in flying so late in the year. The reason for this is that it is specialised on ivy pollen for provisioning its nest. Interestingly, I couldn't find any ivy in flower on the island - there was a little ivy on the north side but not yet in flower. This suggests the bees must be commuting about 500m back to the mainland (where there is lots of flowering ivy along the lanes).
I reported on a colony at Barry Island last year. Until now this was the only known Welsh colony east of Porthcawl; the Sully colony is about 5km further east from that at Barry. Worth looking out for this species if you are down at the coast - there's not much it can be mistaken for at this time of year.
BWARS have a mapping project for this species, which only colonised the UK in 2001. Their latest distribution map can be found here.
George
just photographed one in Cwm Col Huw Wildlife trust reserve, Llantwit Major I believe, awaiting confirmation of ID
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff - that seems a likely site for them.
ReplyDeleteGeorge
yep, Vaughn has confirmed it is Ivy bee. So another location - not sure on where the colony is but doubt its far away
ReplyDeleteThese records are now mapped and will be on the next update on the BWARS website. Big push westwards across Wales this year with a number of records from Pembrokeshire. From Barafundle Bay in the south to Newport in the north
ReplyDelete