Adur Bees 2

Adur Bees, Wasps & Sawflies etc.
excluding Bumblebees


Link to Bees etc. 2009

If IDs are not confirmed, do not quote please

17 May 2009


22 April 2009
Three kleptoparastic (cuckoo) bees Nomada fucata were spotted in the morning, the first skulking amongst the Alexanders at the top of Buckingham Park, the second in the Mill Hill Cutting (south west) and the third on the lower slopes of Mill Hill.
Nomada fucata Information

At the northern end of the lower slopes of Mill Hill, near the Devil's Foot Scabious, I was attacked by a swarm of twenty or so Common Wasps* and despite making a run for it, I was stung at least six times mainly on my scalp and the stings could be felt four hours afterwards. It felt like a very strong nettle sting with a mild location specific headache after four hours had elapsed. My skin did not appear to have been broken, but because it was under my hair on the back of my head, I could not see this. There did not appear to be any swelling. (*I did not stay around to ascertain the precise species.) Later, two days later, I discovered a pin-prick mark around my left sideburns near the ear and another one on my cheek which were wasp stings and both of these were remembered as were two on my scalp which could not be seen.

4 July 2007
A solitary digger wasp in the genus Ectemnius was seen in the north-west part of Mill Hill. These wasps are predators on large flies.


10 June 2007
A Leaf Cutter Bee, Megachile sp. rested on the wooden hand rail in the Butterfly Copse next to the Waterworks Road.

27 April 2007


An ichneumon wasp was recorded from the Pixie Path to Mill Hill. From Chinery I think it could be Pimpla instigator but it has not been confirmed.
Mapmate Ichneumonidae Checklist
Ichneumonidae (Wikipedia)

24 April 2007
A Nomada kleptoparastic (cuckoo) bee was recorded at Cuckoo's Corner. It was skulking and hiding too much to get a photograph.

16 April 2007
Brown female Spring (Hairy-footed) Flower Bees, Anthophora plumipes, buzzed noisily in the sunshine. I only saw one, but others were reported from the lower slopes of Mill Hill.
5 April 2007


This wasp was just the one on Alexanders on the Public Footpath 3138 section of the Waterworks Road south. It is a Queen of the Common Wasp, Vespula vulgaris.

24 March 2007
An interesting orangey coloured Andrena bee briefly visited the flowering Rosemary by the front door of the Hamblett's south Lancing (TQ 186 044) front garden. This was similar to the bee seen on Mill Hill three days previously.
Adur Solitary Bees

An interesting orangey Andrena bee entered a small hole in a small earth bank on the lower slopes of Mill Hill. It did not come out of the hole so I could not identify what species of bee it was. My best guess would be Andrena flavipes. However, the one seen may be a slightly larger species?


One Alexander at the top of the Butterfly Copse next to the Waterworks Road was visited by a small bee Andrena dorsata.
Solitary Bee Portraits
May came in with a shower. On the lower slopes of Mill Hill, small bees visited the Dandelions and there were scores of these and I think the species is Lasioglossum calceatum.

26 April 2006
The first record this year of the Spring (Hairy-footed) Flower Bee, Anthophora plumipes buzzed around a north Shoreham garden. It seemed to be attracted to Spotted Deadnettle, Lamium maculatum (pic). It was seen again about two days later in the same garden.

Andrena fulva (Photograph by Ray Hamblett)

19 April 2006
This attractive bee seen on the lower slopes of Mill Hill was the first time the Tawny Mining Bee, Andrena fulva, has been recorded on these Nature Notes pages. It is a female. The species is recorded as common and widespread.

Report and Photograph by Ray Hamblett (Lancing Nature)
on the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society (Yahoo Group)

ID by Nicolas J. Vereecken on the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society (Yahoo Group)

Andrena (too poor an image to ascertain the species of bee)

9 April 2006
At the top of the Butterfly Copse (Old Shoreham next to the Waterworks Road), a flowering Cherry Plum Tree attracted scores of Andrena bees, altogether at least one hundred and most of them amongst the flowers high in the tree and out of camera range. This one was probably Andrena flavipes; it seems to match the photographs, and it is a common species at this time of the year. The problem is about half a dozen of the Andrena look almost identical without examination under a microscope. A species of Andrena bee is the host for the larvae of the attractive and rare Dotted Bee-fly.
The only thing of note on the lower slopes of Mill Hill was one of small Lasioglossum bees on a solitary Dandelion. It was the same one as illustrated below.
British Insects: Hymenoptera, Andrenidae

6 April 2006
This looks like a tiny bee on a Daisy. There were probably at least two more on a Dandelion in the middle Triangle area of Mill Hill.

Could it be a Lasioglossum

6 February 2006
The first Honey Bee recorded this year was photographed on the Lancing Ring Nature Reserve.

Report by Ray Hamblett on Lancing Ring Nature Notes

February Blogspot Report from Lancing Ring

2 October 2005
This very small flying insect did not hover or buzz and looked like a miniature bee ?

This was probably a species of Lasioglossum, most likely Lasioglossum calceatum.

ID to genus confirmed and to species suggested
by Philippe Moniotte on the British Insects (Yahoo Group)

Adur Solitary Bees

7 August 2005

The social wasp (Vespidae) is a worker Dolichovespula sylvestris, a common social species which is often found at this time of year. This one was discovered in the Hawthorn wood/scrub in the north-west of Mill Hill.

Identification and comments by George Else on the on the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society Yahoo Group

Nest (Link)

Solitary Wasp (Photograph by Ray Hamblett)

21 June 2005

This wasp, maybe Ectemnius continuus visited the rotting log by the pond in my south Lancing garden at TQ 186 044.

Report and Photograph
by Ray Hamblett (Lancing Nature)

Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society
(Yahoo Group)

10 May 2005
There were at least five of the kleptoparastic (cuckoo) bees Nomada fucata in two minutes but only one of its victim the mining bee Andrena flavipes seen amongst the Elm leaves in the centre of New Monks Farm.

7 May 2005
New Monks Farm Insects

The first one is a Nomada kleptoparastic (cuckoo) bee.
The photograph on the far right is an Andrena Mining Bee.

The bee in the first two pictures is Nomada fucata, a parasite of the mining bee Andrena flavipes (and only parasitic on this species) in the photograph on the right which was discovered within a metre of the first bee. (TQ 188 049) Nomada fucata is now widely recorded from southern England.
The Nomada bee was first spotted by Ray Hamblett.

ID confirmed to genus level and identified to specific level by Matt Smith
on the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society Yahoo Group

There are unconfirmed earlier observations of Nomada fucata from the Pixie Path and the lower slopes of Mill Hill.

The method of kleptoparasiticism is that the parasitic Nomada bees lay their eggs into the nest cells of their Andrena hosts.
Brief Extra Information

1 May 2005
An Andrena bee was noted on a Dandelion in the copse at the top of Mill Hill. This a common genus of bees seen in many wild locations at this time of the year.

17 April 2005
The Spring (Hairy-footed) Flower Bee* with a long tongue and a loud buzzing sound in a Shoreham garden, was misidentified as a bee-fly at first. It was not a fly at all, but a solitary bee called Anthophora plumipes. It is a female (they are black) and the males are brown. The straightforward conclusion is the intruder with which it appeared to be fighting was the male of the same species and they were mating.

Identification by Sarah Patton on British Insects Yahoo Group

Full Report with Photographs
Shoreham Town & Gardens
Web Site with Photographs

10 April 2005
There was what looked like an Andrena Mining Bee (illustrated below), probably Andrena flavipes, on yellow flowers of Oil Seed Rape on the south-facing A27 road embankment north of the Dovecote Estate, Shoreham. In the first picture (below), there are Pollen Beetles, Meligethes and a Black Ant of an unknown genus.

Click on the images for a larger picture

Adur Beetles
Andrena emergence in Shrewsbury (photographs)

3 April 2005

This insect photographed above on a Dandelion at the top of The Drive, Shoreham looks familiar, but it does not seem to have been photographed before.

Note the slender "waist" though. It was not seen hovering. This is a Mining Bee? Andrena ?

Certainly not a hoverfly, it has two pairs of wings. I printed off a copy and used a magnifying glass, looked at the wing venation [using Willmer] 3 SM cells; BV straight; D1 rhomboid; SM2 < SM3; hairy, brownish; the rest difficult to see but heading for Andrena sp. However, look at the abdominal segment nearest the "waist" - I don't have a completely sharp pic - but I think I can
see something protruding from between the segments at the left hand side? What do you think? Considering that the lethargic bee I found on a dandelion flower [mine was identified by Stuart Roberts as Andrena chrysosceles] was parasitised by 3 x female Stylops, it looks v. similar to your bee.
Andrena shortlist

Comment by Maggie Frankum on the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society Yahoo Group

Solitary Bee Information

There are over 200 species of solitary bees found in Britain and, like the social bees (the bumblebees and the honey bee), they all feed on pollen and nectar and they are important pollinators of many garden flowers and commercial crops. Solitary bees have no 'workers' and each female builds only a small nest, which she stocks with a large quantity of pollen - enough to provide all the food needed by her future offspring. After laying her eggs, the female bee seals and abandons the nest and soon dies, leaving her offspring to develop on their own.

Order Hymenoptera - Sawflies, Wasps, Ants & Bees

7 August 2004

There are two insects in this picture from Mill Hill.

I have identified the top one as possibly a Digger Wasp, Cerceris rybyensis, which has attacked the small bee which it will paralyse and then kidnap.

ID by Matt Smith on British Insects (Yahoo Group)

30 June 2004

A Leaf Cutter Bee
Megachile sp.

Shoreham garden

Adur Insect Links:

Bumblebees
Hoverflies
Butterflies
Solitary Bees
Mining Bees
Flies
Beetles
Ladybirds
Moths
Grasshoppers & Crickets
Damselflies & Dragonflies
Glow Worms

Other Links:

Bee-killer Wasps (David Element)


*Xanthogramma pedissequum* This hoverfly can be recognised in flight by the the yellow stripes on the side of its thorax. It hovered in mid-air frequently.	This is a wasp (Superfamily: Vespoidae) (ID to species not confirmed) Hovering was spasmodic and not distinctive, with more flitting about than hovering.