{"id":4427,"date":"2025-10-04T12:46:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T11:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=4427"},"modified":"2025-10-04T12:46:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T11:46:36","slug":"october-2024-bees-and-mimics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=4427","title":{"rendered":"October 2025 bees and mimics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The female ivy bees are out. If you\u2019ve not seen one yet, find a flowering ivy bush in the autumnal sunshine. This is where you\u2019re likely to see them feeding on the tiny, white, pin cushion-like flowers for nectar and pollen, alongside slightly bigger honeybees (14mm) that they can easily be confused with. Just to make it harder to ID them, they will be joined by heaps of stripy hoverflies. The ID tips below are designed to help you tell apart an ivy bee from a honeybee. And our\u00a0Is it a bee or a hoverfly? guide<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0should help distinguish both from their hoverfly mimics – three are featured in the chart above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to ID ivy bees:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivy bees (Colletes hederae<\/em>)<\/strong> \u2013 males are (8-9mm) \u2013 a bit smaller than a honeybee – and female ivy bees are 11-13mm \u2013 a bit larger. But the best way to tell them apart is that the ivy bees have a gingery pile on their thorax and much more segmented shiny bands on their abdomen. Honeybees are social bees living in large colonies so you will likely see more honeybees on ivy if there are hives nearby. Ivy bees are solitary (although they can nest next door to each other in large aggregations) , so you may only see a few. \u00a0It can take a while before you can distinguish them, but it\u2019s worth being patient. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten reasons why ivy mining bees are so special:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. They are the last solitary bee to emerge in the year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. They were only described as a separate species in 1993 in Germany. According to bee expert, Ted Benton, the lateness of this discovery may in part be explained by their similarity to two other late-flying close relatives: Heather bees (Colletes succinctus<\/em>) and Sea Aster bees (Colletes halophilus<\/em>).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. They were first discovered in England just over 20 years ago, in an ivy bush in Dorset in 2001.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Since they were first spotted on these shores they have spread across the UK and were recorded in Scotland in 2021. You can contribute to a\u00a0mapping project<\/a>\u00a0to show how widespread they now are.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. There is a real thrill when you see one for the first time, because it means you have learned to distinguish its features (gingery pile on its thorax and segmented shiny bands on its abdomen) from the honeybee.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. They only fly for around six weeks, when the ivy is flowering, so they seem more special than bees that fly all summer.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. They nest in huge aggregations of thousands of bees, making burrows in loose soil and sandy banks. It\u2019s an amazing sight watching them emerge in late August\/early September. I\u2019ve never seen it, but I hope to create a sand bank somewhere that may become a nesting site. This video<\/a> gives a flavour.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Their symbiotic relationship with ivy \u2013 emerging to feed on its nectar and pollen and pollinating it at the same time \u2013 really demonstrates the connection between bees and flowering plants. This relationship has evolved over 100 million years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Watching them at work helps to connect us with nature on our doorstep. We don\u2019t need to visit the \u2018countryside\u2019, or far flung places, to see nature in action.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. They are also called plasterer bees, because like all bees with the Latin name Colletes<\/em>, they line the nests they create in their burrows with a cellophane-like waterproof and fungus-resistant substance that they secret. Isn\u2019t that amazing!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    How to ID other October solitary bees:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Common furrow bee\u00a0<\/strong>(Lasioglossum calceatum<\/em>) \u2013 if you see a small (8-10mm) black, shiny insect with a long body on a flower late in the summer or in autumn, chances are it will be this bee. The yellow legs in the photo above, should help, and there are some band markings on the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Tips for IDing October bumblebees:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n