Pic credits L clockwise: Great Yellow bumblebee, Laurie Campbell; Brown-banded carder bee, Ray Reeves; Moss carder bee, Nick Withers, Pantaloon bee, Penny Metal; Long-horned bee, Catherine Mitson
The Great Yellow bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus), is one of our rarest bumblebees, only found on flower-rich machair areas around the coast in the Orkneys, Inner and Outer Hebrides, and Caithness and Sutherland where traditional crofting and low intensity agriculture means red clovers , bird’s food trefoil and other vetches are in good supply. Bumblebee Conservation Trust is working to save the bee.
Moss carder bee (Bombus muscorum) is another rare bee also found in Scotland and the Pennines, on moors eating knapweeds and vetches. Further south it’s confined to flowery coastal marshland, like Romney Marsh in Kent where a BBCT project has brought this bleached bodied, long tongued bee back from the brink by working with farmers to plant their favourite food. Queens measure 14mm, making them the largest carder bee in Britain.
Brown-banded carder bee (Bombus humilis) is another rarity, restricted to coastal areas along the south coast of England and Wales from May to September. It also looks like it’s been spending too much time in the sun with its pale blonde body and has benefited from the BBCT project above.
Ruderal bumblebee (Bombus ruderatus) is so rare you have to be extremely lucky to catch site of it in a few isolated pocket along the south coast between Rye and Folkstone, and in Lincolnshire where red clovers still grows abundantly. Queens are a huge 18mm and look like a giant Garden bumblebee. Nine of them have been recently recorded by BBCT trust staff in central Carmarthenshire.
Pantaloon bee ((Dasypoda hirtipes) is a solitary bee you have a good chance of seeing excavating its nest, with its oversized pollen brushes, or ‘pantaloons’ in sandy banks and footpaths if you’re holidaying anywhere from Dorset to Norfolk and maybe even Wales.
Long-horned bee (Eucera longicornis) is so called because the males have what appear to be ridiculously long antennae, longer than their bodies. The females have shorter ones and can be seen foraging on clovers, vetches and legumes like bird’s foot trefoil in a few places on the south coast of England and Wales, notably Prawle Point in Devon, where a project is underway to by expand and reconnect the vital coastal habitats on which this and many other wildlife species depend. Learn more here.
Six-banded Nomad bee (Nomada sexfasciata) is our rarest nomad bee because its host bee – whose home it lays its eggs in – is so rare – the Long-horned bee. In fact, this striking nomad bee is now only recorded at the cliffs at Prawle Point. All nomad bees lay their eggs in the burrows of their host bee and then their larvae kill the host’s egg and gobble up all the food. So nomad bees can only exist if there is a healthy population of host bees.
Sandpit Blood bee (Sphecodes pellucidus) is one of 17 UK species of the cleptoparasite Blood bees which take over the nests of various ground nesting furrow bees and mining bees. They are small (5-7mm), and non-hairy, but have a distinct red segment on their otherwise black abdomen which looks as if they have been drinking blood. This one hangs out on coastal dunes and rock cliffs and heathland where its host, the brown, fluffier Sandpit mining bee (Andrena barbilabris) is commonly found.