James Power reports: "We’ve formed a Sussex Bees and Wasps Recording Group, with the aim of sharing knowledge and skills and exploring different habitats and locations across both East and West Sussex. We have a number of site visits planned for 2019, and we’d love to hear from anyone interested in joining us. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch with James Power at jamesmbuna@gmail.com
Many old records and ecological notes attributed to this species have to be treated with caution due to confusion between this species and the very similar A. pubescens Curtis.
Distribution:
Old records purporting to be of this species from the British mainland are referable to A. pubescens. This species is only known from the Channel Islands (Jersey), but there are no recent records.
Abroad, it occurs across Europe to China and Korea in the east.
Status (in Britain only):
The Channel Islands are, for a number of reasons, excluded from the geographical coverage of the British Red Data book (Shirt, 1987) and the subsequent review (Falk, 1991).
Habitat:
No data available for the Channel Islands. In general, species of the genus are associated with dry, sandy areas.
Flight period:
The literature sources for Europe cite May to September.
Prey collected:
Ammophila campestris preys exclusively on larvae of sawflies in the family Tenthredinidae (Lomholdt, 1984).
Nesting biology:
No data available with certainty, due to the earlier confusion with A. pubescens.
This species is not covered by Lomholdt (1984), since it is not a Fenno-Scandinavian species.
Distribution:
In the British Isles only known from the Channel Islands, and not seen there recently.
It occurs throughout central and southern Europe, through Turkey, Kazakhstan to Siberia (Dollfuss, 1991), with Bitsch et al. (2001) adding the USA.
Status (in Britain only):
The Channel Islands are, for a number of reasons, excluded from the geographical coverage of the British Red Data book (Shirt, 1987) and the subsequent review (Falk, 1991).
Habitat:
No data available.
Flight period:
Dollfuss (1991) gives May to August for continental examples.
Prey collected:
Kurczewski (1987), in America, notes the collection of very small grasshoppers.
Nesting biology:
No data available for the British Isles. Kurczewski (1987) states that a short tunnel is excavated with a terminal cell in which up to 11 prey items are stored.
An all black species, the abdomen, particularly in the female, with paired spots of silvery-grey pubescence. The posterolateral projections on the propodeum distinguish it immediately from most other British species.
Distribution:
In the British Isles this species is restricted to the Channel Islands.
Overseas it occurs from Europe across to central Asia and in north Africa (Wolf, 1972).
Status (in Britain only):
The Channel Islands are, for a number of reasons, excluded from the geographical coverage of the British Red Data book (Shirt, 1987) and the subsequent review (Falk, 1991).
Habitat:
Occurs in open sandy habitats, especially on dunes.
Flight period:
Day (1988) cites records only for June, but suggests it is likely to be active in July and August. It has been recorded on the northern French coast in early September (pers. obs.).
Prey collected:
No British data. Gros (1983) recorded a salticid in France, and Wiśniowski (2009) lists several salticid genera as well as Philodromidae and Thomisidae.
Nesting biology:
This species is fossorial, digging short burrows in the sand. The spider is paralysed prior to nest construction.
This is a Channel Islands species not found in mainland Britain.
It is a mainly Western Palaearctic species known from central and southern Europe, including Sicily and Crete. Also, from North Africa, including the Canary Islands, Morocco and Tunisia, and with limited information for the Arabian peninsula (United Arab Emirates).
Status (in Britain only):
The Channel Islands are, for a number of reasons, excluded from the geographical coverage of the British Red Data book (Shirt, 1987) and the subsequent review (Falk, 1991).
Habitat:
In continental Europe, a species of warm, open, sandy habitats, including heathland and sandpits (Bogusch & Straka, 2012).
Flight period:
A Channel Islands flight period cannot be defined, due to the lack of data.
Pollen collected:
As this bee is a cleptoparasite no pollen is collected.
Nesting biology:
A cleptoparasite of mining bees of the genus Lasioglossum. Lasioglossum semilucens (Alfken), L. sexstrigatum (Schenck) and L. punctatissimum (Schenck) are among species considered as putative hosts (Bogusch & Straka, 2012).
This is a Channel Islands species not found in mainland Britain.
An uncommon Western Palaearctic species, occurring as far east as northern China.
Status (in Britain only):
The Channel Islands are, for a number of reasons, excluded from the geographical coverage of the British Red Data book (Shirt, 1987) and the subsequent review (Falk, 1991).
Habitat:
It occurs in sandy habitats.
Flight period:
The Channel Island flight period cannot be defined, although elsewhere it has been found flying in June.
Pollen collected:
Pollen sources are unknown but it is likely to be polylectic.
Nesting biology:
Abroad, the females are known to nest in aggregations in vertical sandy faces. Details of the nesting behaviour are unknown.
With a body length of up to 20 mm in both sexes this is an enormous halictid and one of the largest species worldwide. As such, it can be readily identified in that part of the British Isles where it occurs.
Distribution:
In the British Isles this species is known only from Guernsey and Sark in the Channel Islands, although it only colonised there quite recently; the first record being from Guernsey on 2nd July 1997 and on Sark in September 2006 (the late C David, pers. comm.).
The world range of this bee is Trans-Palaearctic, extending from Fennoscandia to Iberia, east to China (Ascher & Pickering, 2012). It is also known from North Africa (Morocco).
Status (in Britain only):
The Channel Islands are, for a number of reasons, excluded from the geographical coverage of the British Red Data book (Shirt, 1987) and the subsequent review (Falk, 1991).
Habitat:
In the Channel Islands, the species has been encountered on coastal grassland (C David, pers. comm.). According to Pesenko et al. (2000) the species favours warm dry habitats, such as parks, roadsides, quarries etc. as nesting sites.
Flight period:
Females are active from April to August (occasionally as late as October); males can be found from July to September or October.
Pollen collected:
Polylectic, visiting species in the families Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, Convolvulaceae, Dipsacaceae, Oleaceae, Papaveraceae, Ranunculaceae and Valerianaceae (Westrich, 1989).
Nesting biology:
The author of this profile has observed females nesting in a very extensive aggregation on level sandy soil in an open site in southern Spain (Andalusia). The large, open nest burrows were particularly obvious. Several females may nest co-operatively (Pesenko et al., 2000). This is a solitary species as only one generation is reared in a season (this consists of reproductive females (gynes) and males; there is no worker caste). Cells are built in clusters of between four and 20 and, when completed, are within a cavity, the cells being supported by several pillars of soil. A nest may contain several such clusters, each cavity opening into the main nest burrow.
Flowers visited:
The only flower record for the Channel Islands is spear thistle (C David, pers. comm.).
Hylaeus signatus male emerging from roost
Pseudomalus auratus
