WE ALL know honeybees, and the majority of us are equally familiar with bumblebees, even if we struggle to name them individually, but solitary bees? They are a huge group that most of us know little about, but of the 270 species of bee found in Britain, nearly 250 of them are what are known as solitary bees. If that sounds a lot, some 20,000 bee species have been described worldwide, and there are surely many more yet to be named. For the record, there are 24 species of bumblebees to be found in these isles, along with the single species of honeybee.
Few of the solitary bees have English names, while specific identification is usually a challenge even for experts. A small number are easy to name but for most a microscope is needed: the submarginal cells on the forewing are of great value in specific identification, as is the form of the tongue. It’s a highly complicated business and explains why so few have anything other than a scientific name.
Solitary bees are aptly named, as they don’t live in colonies like honeybees or most bumblebees. None use hives, while more than half of them nest in the ground, where they excavate their own chamber. However, the solitary bees are a remarkably diverse and varied lot, so quite a number of them play by a different set of rules. Some build so-called ‘aerial nests’, typically taking over old beetle holes in vegetation. We also have one species of solitary bee, a small metallic-blue insect called Ceratina cyanea, that excavates its own aerial nest, usually in bramble stems. It digs out the pith of the stem to create the space to lay its eggs. There is also a trio of snail-shell-nesting bees, using empty shells for their nests – a remarkably sensible arrangement.
Bu hikaye The Field dergisinin June 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye The Field dergisinin June 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Rory Stewart - The former Cabinet minister and hit podcast host talks to Alec Marsh about the parlous state of British politics, land management and his deep love of the countryside
The gently spoken 51-year-old former Conservative Cabinet minister is a countryman at heart. That's clear: he even changes into a tweed waistcoat for the interview, which takes place at his London home and begins with a question about his precise career status. Having resigned from the Commons and the Conservative Party in 2019, the former diplomat and soldier has reinvented himself, first with an unconventional but promising run as an independent for the London mayoralty (abandoned because of COVID19 in 2020) and then as a media figure, co-hosting one of the country's most popular podcasts, The Rest Is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor.
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