All images on this website have been taken in Leicestershire and Rutland by NatureSpot members. We welcome new contributions - just register and use the Submit Records form to post your photos. Click on any image below to visit the species page. The RED / AMBER / GREEN dots indicate how easy it is to identify the species - see our Identification Difficulty page for more information. A coloured rating followed by an exclamation mark denotes that different ID difficulties apply to either males and females or to the larvae - see the species page for more detail.

Bees, Wasps, Ants

Bees, wasps, ants and sawflies are all part of the insect order Hymenoptera.  A typical hymenopteran has 2 pairs of wings which are coupled together with tiny hooks.  Bees, wasps and ants are in the sub-Order Apocrita, with a definite waist between the thorax and abdomen. 

We have placed Sawflies in a separate gallery because they are in the sub-order Symphyta, and considered to be more primitive than other groups of the Hymenoptera. They are very different to bees, wasps and ants - one distinctive feature is that they don't have a waist. 

Whilst everyone is familiar with the social bumblebees and honeybees, these represent only about 10% of all the British bee species. The remainder are solitary bees that don't work together as a single colony to rear their young. 

There is an even greater diversity of wasps. As with the bees, there are a few social wasps that everyone is familiar with, but these represent just a small fraction of all UK wasps. Sand-wasps, Digger-wasps, Mason wasps and Potter wasps and many other species all have solitary life cycles.

Many wasps are parasitoids, attacking the immature stages of other insects and eventually killing their hosts. (A parasite lives within the host, but doesn't kill it).  Examples are Chalcids, Ichneumons and Braconids.  These are generally under-recorded species, and identification often requires the help of an expert in the group.

Ants are all social insects living in large colonies that work collaboratively.  Identification can be difficult, and several are under-recorded in our area.  Gavin Gamble has written some notes on Ant Recording and Identification to guide recorders. 

Many members of this group are difficult or impossible to identify from field images. Make sure that your images include the diagnostic features needed to make a definitive identification or get a recognised expert to confirm the identification.

Identification help

Facebook group: BWARS

Facebook group: British Ichneumons

Bumblebees, Cuckoo bees, Flower bees and Honeybees, etc.

Bumblebees (some Bombus species) are true social bees, forming large nest colonies set up in spring by fertilised queen bees emerging from hibernation.  The nests are populated mainly by sterile female worker bees, but later on in the season the queen produces eggs that develop into fertile males and new queens.  The three 'castes' of bumblebee - queen, worker, male - usually have different sizes and appearances, which complicates identification to a species - and so it is important to note the caste in the comments box for your record. 

Some species of Bombus are Cuckoo bees, all formerly placed in the Psithyrus genus.  The queens take over the nest of a social bumblebee, killing or subduing the queen and commandeering all the workers.  She pruoduces her own fertile males and new queens, but the job of foraging and caring for the grubs is done by the parasitised workers.  Because of this, female Cuckoo bees don't have the familiar pollen baskets on their hind legs, although in other respects they look very similar. 

Flower bees (Anthrophora) are not true social bees, but live in colonies, sometimes very large.  There are no worker bees.

The Bumblebee Species Guide is a useful summary and guide from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, covering most UK species of Bombus. 

Steve Falk's has produced some crib-sheets for BWARS, covering some of the more difficult species

 

Apidae - bumblebees, etc.

 

 

Nomad bees

These species are also in the Apidae family along with bumblebees, etc., but have a very different appearance to the furry bumblebees, sometimes being mistaken for wasps.  They are all cleptoparasites of solitary bees, usually Andrena species.  The females enter the burrow or nest cell, and lay an egg inside.  When this hatches, it kills the egg or grub and feeds on the stored food.  They have specific hosts and so may often be recorded around the entrances of their host species' burrow or nest-site.  Identification can be difficult, and males and females often have different appearances; always note the sex of your specimen in the comments box.

A revised account of British nomad bees (Apidae: Nomada) by Steven Falk, 2024 is available on BWARS website

Apidae (Nomad bees)

Solitary bees

Colletidae - Plasterer and Yellow-face bees

Andrenidae - Mining bees

Andrena is the largest genus of bees found in the UK, in a diverse range of sizes from the tiny 'mini-miners' in the subgenus Micrandrena to species the size of honeybees.  They all have 3 submarginal cells in the forewing, and the females have pollen-baskets on their hind-legs and the sides of the propodaeum at the rear end of the thorax. 

Identification of some species is difficult.  Male and females are often different in appearance, and are keyed out separately - and therefore you should always record sex in your comments for your record.   Nests are usualy made in soil, sometimes singly but often in colonies - but none are true social bees. 

The nests are attacked by many different cleptoparasites and parasitoids, including including Nomad bees (Nomada), Blood bees (Sphecodes), Bee-flies (Bombylius), Conopid flies in the Myopa genus (e.g.see M testacea) and the Anthomyiidae flies Leucophora.  Species are frequently parasitised by Stylops, in the order Strepsiptera - the pupae of the parasite may be seen as a triangular structure protruding from between the abdominal tergites of a bee.