The day will be led by Steven Falk one of Britain’s foremost experts of bees and other pollinators. Steven recently wrote the first ever field guide to British bees and is also well known as an insect illustrator. Join us for our fantastic day looking at wild bees up close using microscopes and also learn more about their behaviour, ecology and conservation.
The course will provide an introduction to bees, then a chance to identify them under the microscope using the dichotomous keys and images in the new field guide and also the resources available on Steven's British Bees on Flickr site. A field trip (weather dependent) will allow you to see living ones and develop basic collecting and field identification skills and better understand their ecology and conservation. Lots of fun, the only long faces allowed are those of garden bumblebees.
The course will provide an introduction to bees, then a chance to identify them under the microscope using the dichotomous keys and images in the new field guide and also the resources available on Steven's British Bees on Flickr site. A field trip (weather dependent) will allow you to see living ones and develop basic collecting and field identification skills and better understand their ecology and conservation. Lots of fun, the only long faces allowed are those of garden bumblebees.
The course will provide an introduction to bees, then a chance to identify them under the microscope using the dichotomous keys and images in the new field guide and also the resources available on Steven's British Bees on Flickr site. A field trip (weather dependent) will allow you to see living ones and develop basic collecting and field identification skills and better understand their ecology and conservation. Lots of fun, the only long faces allowed are those of garden bumblebees.
The course will provide an introduction to bees, then a chance to identify them under the microscope using the dichotomous keys and images in the new field guide and also the resources available on Steven's British Bees on Flickr site. A field trip (weather dependent) will allow you to see living ones and develop basic collecting and field identification skills and better understand their ecology and conservation. Lots of fun, the only long faces allowed are those of garden bumblebees.
The Short-haired Bumblebee Project (Bombus subterraneus) is running an intermediate bumblebee ecology and identification course on 6th May at RSPB Dungeness. The course costs £12 and runs from 10-3pm.
Booking is essential so please email the course leader, Dr. Nikki Gammans to book your place. Joining instructions will be provided on booking:
The Short-haired Bumblebee Project (Bombus subterraneus) is running a beginners bumblebee ecology and identification course on 8th April at RSPB Dungeness. The course costs £12 and runs from 10-3pm.
Booking is essential so please email the course leader, Dr. Nikki Gammans to book your place. Joining instructions will be provided on booking:
During my identification and learning process (never ends!) I took photos of the bits of wasp specimens which were alluded to in the key(s), mostly first and last below, to help me understand what was meant:
Yeo P.F. & Corbett S.A. 1983 Solitary Wasps. Naturalist's Handbooks 3 CUP
Richards O.W. 1980 Scolioidea, Vespoidea and Sphecoidea RES.
and worth every penny for the clear illustrations and descriptions:
Lomholdt O. 1984 The Sphecidae (Hymenoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark. Brill (publisher, not a comment on how good I think it is!)
Discovered as new to Britain in 2017 by David Notton and Hannah Norman. The discovery was made from a specimen collected in a garden in Lewisham in May 2017. Subsequently a small number of specimens from southern England have been identified, dating back to 1802. Full details are given in: Notton, D.G. and Norman, H., 2017.
Hylaeus signatus male emerging from roost
Pseudomalus auratus
