Bees

The number of bee species identified in the area was enhanced, particularly during 2016, by the efforts of local naturalist Rose Stephens, and her records are appended to my somewhat meagre list of species. Means of assistance to the identification of species have been helped considerably in recent years by not only the publication of good field guides such as Falk and Lewington's Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015), but also by the availability of good quality photographic equipment and on-line assistance from experts such as may be available from such websites as iSpot and iRecord.

However, identification made on the basis of information available in general field guides and by means of photographs cannot always be reliable. Some species require microscopic examination and specialist knowledge to reliably identify. As such, the information presented here relating to my knowledge of local bees should be treated with some caution. Where a species has been reliably identified, or thought to be distinctive enough that there is little doubt, then it is given here without comment. In some cases, though, it may have been only identified to Genus level, and in others a question mark is put after the species.

The genera list is arranged taxonomically (following Michener (2007)), with the species arranged alphabetically. (This is the order listed in The Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland by Falk and Lewington)

List of species recorded by people other than myself - notably Rose Stephens (RSt). I have not personally seen these species.