A POCKET GUIDE TO

THE BEES OF WALSALL

M ORGAN B OWERS
First Edition, 2013

THIS BOOK IS PRODUCED BY

THE BLACK COUNTRY & STAFFORDSHIRE NATURALISTS

Morgan Bowers 2013

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE GROUP, AND GETTING INVOLVED WITH SURVEYS (BEES, BATS, NEWTS, PLANTS AND MORE), GO TO HTTP://BCSNATS.WORDPRESS.COM OR FIND US ON FACEBOOK
ALL IMAGES M BOWERS UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I couldnt possibly make a list of all the people in my life who have encouraged my interest in natural history, inspired me to have the confidence to continue to learn, and generally put up with me being a pretty weird friend, spouse, daughter, sister, employee, student, etc But heres a start: Firstly to my Dad, Pete. For being the kind of dad that thinks its fine if your daughter runs around barefoot catching crickets and climbing trees. Thank you for never pushing me into a mould. To my mom, Linda for your utter and complete acceptance of me. To Mike Bloxham, for that first push into entomology. To Alex Lockton and Sarah Whild, for making me, over the course of eight years, into a halfdecent ecologist. To Pete Boardman for generally being pretty damn great, for having faith in me when I didnt, and for many beers sitting by Darwin pond over the years.

To Ian Cheeseborough and Andy Jukes for being my Bee-Yodas. To my wonderful friends on the invertebrate challenge Aculeates course - and especially to my dear friend Bex, for hours spent hanging out in fields with me squinting at bug pots. To my colleagues from Countryside Services: Colin, Eric, Jeff, Nige, Tim, Martin and Helen and to my boss Kevin for tolerating my eccentricities. To Dan Slee, Helen Burrows, Tina Faulkner and the rest of the web and marketing teams at Walsall Council. To the members of the Black Country & Staffordshire Naturalists, evil geniuses all! Most of all to my husband Paul, for putting up with all kinds of entomological debris in the living room, tirelessly accompanying me to endless sites looking for bees, not minding that the car is full of emergency bug pots and for not thinking its weird that I wanted a bumblebee nest box for valentines day. I have no words.

PROLOGUE: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FEAR

Gaining a love of bees can often be difficult for some, because there are often a lot of psychological hurdles to leap, because unfortunately, from the time you were a child, you were probably taught to give bees a wide berth, if not taught to fear them outright. I think that the thing most people fear about bees is probably the simple fear of being stung. The truth is that, after years of catching, examining and enjoying bees, I have only once been stung by a bee (I was standing next to a honey bee hive when a wasp attacked a bee near the hive entrance naturally the bees went into defence mode, and I was stung on the arm!). Wrong place, wrong time.

My intention with this book is not to turn you into an expert, or even, really, to get you into bees or even improve your identification skills. Im not on a crusade to get more people into entomology (okay, I am, but thats not the aim) What Im trying to do is to show you where to go and what to look for if you fancy having a go at being a bee person, even for a day. I want to show you that there are many, many more types of bees than you probably thought, and CERTAINLY more wasps than you thought there were. And you can find them, if you look, all over Walsalls nature reserves.

The problem with fearing something is that we tend to avoid it at all costs we dont

learn about the thing we fear, we often dont even think about it because the psychology of fear is very powerful and even the thought of something feared (for me it is spiders!) can bring on sweaty palms, heart palpitations, or even a full-blown panic attack.

because they are secretive, quiet and fragile creatures that would be dead before they reached the end of the hose!) I left with a new mantra to say every time I see a spider: Its not remotely interested in me whatsoever! Now, Im not going to tell you that bees wont sting you, because, if threatened, they most certainly will (at least the females will male bees dont sting!). But I can honestly tell you that you can enjoy many bees (like mining bees and bumble bees) without them even giving you a second thought. Theyre NOT out to get you they arent remotely interested in you whatsoever!

A good friend of mine took me to an arachnophobia workshop at Dudley Zoo a few years ago, and I still claim that is the best 20 Ive ever spent. There was no hypnotherapy or hocus pocus just a very knowledgeable man passing on his enthusiasm and doing his best to put right some of what I now realise was RIDICULOUS mis-information in my head about spiders (i.e. theyre NOT out to get me, they WONT jump off the wall and land on my face, and most importantly, if I hoover one up it WONT make a nest of a thousand spider eggs inside the hoover bag!) This is mostly

So take a deep breath, say the mantra, and take the plunge into the fuzzy, cuddly, colourful, bumbling, sunny world of the bee

FOREWORD
Thank you for your interest in the Bees of Walsall. I have high hopes for the study, and aim to update this book as new records and information are gathered.

So what you will find is a small selection of quarries, woodlands, heathlands, wetlands, and grasslands. From post-industrial sites to Ancient Semi-Natural Woodlands, Walsall has a bit of everything, with many sites comprising a mosaic of interesting habitats. Several of the sites (Mill Lane, Pelsall North Common, Brownhills Common, Beacon Quarry and Shire Oak Park) have all been the subject of targeted invertebrate surveys in the past. The work to gain a thorough picture of what species inhabit our countryside sites is on-going, and I hope to continually update this book with up to date information, and continue to add sites and species as our database of ecological records increases.

CHOOSING THE SITES

This book takes a look at 9 sites currently managed by Walsall Countryside Services. It does not cover the 20+ remaining Countryside Sites or any of the numerous parks, greens, community gardens, commons, allotments, canal towpaths, roadside verges, town centre planting areas or the thousands of urban and suburban gardens that are also important nesting or foraging sites for Walsalls bees and wasps. I had to narrow it down somewhat, and so for this first Edition of The Bees of Walsall, I have selected sites which have either significant species lists due to being the subject of past surveys, or because of their unusual landscape, habitats or species.

THE HABITAT TYPES

When I initially set out to write this, I had hoped to categorise the study into the bees of Walsalls heathlands, quarries, meadows, etc. However, many of the sites that Ive included in this book have within them more than one type of habitat.

(Shire Oak Park, for example, is a former quarry with pools, woodland, areas of heathland and patches of meadow.) How could I classify sites into broad categories when their industrial past has created such a mosaic of habitats? As a result, I have opted to simply look at each site in turn, and to point out the key species you may find on site, where to look for them, and how to recognise them. In order to help you to know what to expect, or even to plan your bee-watching according to habitat, I have colour-coded each habitat type, and these codes are underneath the site name on each site page, signifying the three dominant habitat types found on site. You could even use these to look for specific species (For example, if you are looking for the Tormentil Mining Bee, Andrena tarsata, you will need to look for the purple icon, as it is a heathland species.) The coloured icons are to the right. Yellow denotes sites where grasslands or meadows can be found, green signifies woodland sites, purple for heathland, pink for farmland, blue for wetlands

and water courses and orange for sites with geological exposures / former quarry sites:

GRASSLANDS WOODLANDS HEATHLANDS FARMLAND WETLANDS QUARRIES

CHOOSING THE SPECIES

This book is by no means an exhaustive atlas of bees for Walsall, rather it is a snapshot of our most exiting species and most valuable habitats and sites. For this first edition, I have endeavoured to select species which you could conceivably be able to identify yourself, with a

bit of practice, in the field, even if you have not done any entomological work before.

You may also notice that I have sneaked a few wasps in under the radar, and until they have their own book, here they will stay.

Morgan Bowers, 2013

Im also not a huge fan of jargon, and I know how much it can intimidate and put people off learning a new group of plants or animals. The entomological community need to be actively encouraging new recorders, not perpetuating the gap between wildlife enthusiasts and proper entomologists. After all, every expert at one time was a beginner, and there was a day when they learned to identify their first species, so why cant you do the same? Because of this, I have tried to select species which have common names, so you will not be drowning in Latin (at least not for the time being!). Later editions will include more species, quick ID guides and even more!

PART 1: RECORDING BEES IN WALSALL

GEOLOGY & INDUSTRY
Walsall, like the rest of the Black Country, has a past steeped in industry, and the scars of mining, quarrying, smelting and transporting gravel, sand, limestone, coal and iron still lie just beneath the surface.

Pasture, and in contrast fine acidic grasslands around Barr Beacon, and historic bluebell woodlands like Merrions Wood and Rough Wood. In turn this affects the species of insects which collect nectar and pollen from the plants and flowers that thrive on site. Some species of bees seek out yellow composites (like dandelions) that grow in acidic grassland, while others seek out the nectar sources in lime-rich meadows. While the geology provides the environment for food sources for bees and other insects, the actions of humans, in their effort to harvest minerals, have provided excellent opportunities for nesting.

The underlying geology that made this area so desirable for industry rich coal seams, fine sand and gravel, are still the underpinning characteristic of our landscape today. They directly affect the plants that grow in each area of the borough with calcareous woodlands and grasslands flourishing on sites like Park Lime Pits (aptly named!) and Hayhead Wood and

Just one look at the quarry faces of Shire Oak Park or Beacon Quarry and you can immediately see signs of occupancy by solitary bees.

ENTOMOLOGY IN WALSALL
The earliest record of a bee held by EcoRecord (our local Biological Records Centre) is from 1984. This is somewhat surprising, as our area is home to the Great Barr Estate, with naturalists including William Withering and Erasmus Darwin along with the rest of the famous Lunar Society. For an area with a rich scientific heritage, it is shocking to think that no biological records survived from before Ghostbusters came out at the cinema! But I think that we take for granted that urban wildlife is given its kudos these days. Today, thanks to the tireless work of the supporters of urban biodiversity, and the champions of post-industrial brownfield sites, we value our urban wildlife, when in the past the countryside was seemingly much further from the town. Birmingham & the Black Country does not have and Invertebrates Group (although our neighbours in Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Shropshire all have active groups). The problem with groups that have geographical constraints is that they dont

tend to cross borders. Because of this, most of the work that has been undertaken in the Borough has been as survey work commissioned through funded projects or as ad-hoc records from individual naturalists.

DISTRIBUTION MAPS
As you look through this book, on the species pages you will see a small map, which marks each tetrad (2km square) in which each species has been recorded to date. Its important to acknowledge the fact that these maps (as is the case with any maps in any atlas of species) are never a representation of the distribution of a species. Rather, it is a representation of the distribution of RECORDS of that species. This means that there is always a margin of error between the map and the real distribution, and the extent of this margin of error is a direct reflection of the amount of survey work / biological recording that takes place in an area.

A total of 21 people (at the time of writing) have submitted biological records of bees and wasps in Walsall (since records began). Of those, only 7 have submitted more than 5 records, and only 4 have submitted more than 10 records. This means that although the quantity of records is decent, there are currently only 4 people actively recording bees in the Walsall area. Having said that, recording is clearly on the increase. The table below, by decade, shows the number of records submitted:

The main surveys that have been undertaken are:

Bloxham, M. and Slawson, C. (1999-2000) Pelsall North Common Terrestrial Invertebrates Survey Bloxham, M. and Shirley, P. (1999-2001) Brownhills Common Survey Bowers, M. (2011) Aculeates of Pelsall North Common (MSc Dissertation) Bowers, M., Cartwright, A. and Cheeseborough, I. (2012) BioBlitz: The Grange Jukes, A. and Henshall, S. (2003) Pinfold Lane Quarry Survey Jukes, A. and Slawson, C. (2003-2004) Shire Oak Park Invertebrates Survey Jukes, A. (2006) Walsall Power Station Survey

Decade 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s (so far)

Records 10 79 462 191

PAST SURVEYS
Generally speaking, the vast majority of records of Aculeate Hymenoptera (Bees, Wasps and Ants) have been generated through official surveys, by a small number of people.

THE WALSALL ACULEATES SURVEY PROJECT (WASP)

Oily Goughs in Rough Wood Chase LNR, Fibbersley LNR in Willenhall and Moorcroft Wood in Darlaston.

The WASP project is an ongoing study aiming to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of Walsalls Aculeate Hymenoptera (Bees, Wasps and Ants).

We will also be undertaking a study of the foraging ranges of the Tormentil Mining Bee (Andrena tarsata) on Pelsall North Common. If you are interested in getting involved with surveys, please contact the Black Country and Staffordshire Naturalists via http://bcsnats.wordpress.com.

The project begins in 2013 with the Passive Monitoring of Social Wasps at Rough Wood & Merrions Wood, as well as surveys of the aculeates of some of Walsalls most underrecorded sites. Surveys for 2013 will include Bentley Haye, Wood Farm and

PART 2: ABOUT BEES

BEE-ING ANTISOCIAL?
Youll hear me refer to social bees and wasps and solitary ones too. By social I mean bees and wasps that live in a hive or colony, with solitary bees making their own nest. Solitary bees have no queens or workers, just males and females. However, as is often the case with nature, there are some quirky exceptions to the rule. Many solitary bees are solitary, yet gregarious, in that their nesting habits are social, but they may make individual nests in compact aggregations or in some cases males will come together in lekking displays. So solitary doesnt necessarily mean anti-social, if you know what I mean.

The Tawny Mining Bee (pictured above) is a common groundnesting species. Many of the Andrena bees and similar Mining Bees nest in ground that is anywhere from flat to nearly vertical. Some prefer different aspects (South-east, East, etc) and their tastes also vary according to how soft the substrate is. Many bees like a nice firmly-packed sandy path, while others like looser soil, or even sand dunes. They are all quite picky young ladies to be honest! Bumble bees tend to be ground nesters, but rather than excavating a burrow like a mining bee, the queen emerges early in the spring and searches out an old mouse hole or other cavity in the ground in which to establish her nest. This is why you can buy bumblebee nest boxes and they will readily set up their colony inside it.

THE NESTING INSTINCT

By and large, Bees can be categorised broadly by their nesting preferences: Ground Nesters, Aerial Nesters, Dead Wood Nesters and Stem Nesters.

AERIAL NESTERS
Bees that nest in more vertical slopes, quarry faces, banks and even in the mini-quarry face provided by a set of steps, are referred to as aerial nesters. The Red Mason Bee (pictured below peering out from a hole in a church wall!) are well-known aerial nesters. You may have seen them in the gaps between your house bricks in the spring!

DEAD WOOD NESTERS

Still more species (usually very tiny solitary wasps) will nest inside the holes left behind when wood-boring beetles have left the dead trees where they hatched.

Keep an eye on dead wood when you are out and about and you are sure to come across dead wood that is littered with tiny holes!

STEM NESTERS
Some solitary species actually nest inside the stems, leaves, fruits or seeds of plants! They are not as commonly found as their excavating counterparts, as many of them are tiny, but you may have seen Oak Galls (like round wooden balls) on oak trees, where an oak gall wasp has laid its egg!

LEAF CUTTERS
Leaf cutter bees (Megachile) are fantastic little creatures that collect parts of leaves with which to build a series of individual little cells in which to lay their egg and provision with pollen before sealing the cell up with more leaves and then creating another. They create these cells

sequentially inside hollows or tubes (you can make/buy nest boxes full of tubes to attract them)!

waits until the host bee is away from the nest and then goes inside and lays an egg of her own. The cuckoos egg then hatches, and often the first stage of larva has HUGE mandibles with which to dispatch the poor egg or larva of the host. It then proceeds to eat the pollen store. This type of approach to reproduction is referred to as Cleptoparasitism. (Clepto = thief)

The cells even hatch in the opposite order in which they were laid so that no bees are trapped behind any other!

CUCKOOS
The cuckoo (the bird) lays its eggs in the nest of other birds. The egg then hatches and the hatchling bird kicks the eggs of the host out of the nest! It is for exactly this behaviour that cuckoo bees are named. The hard working host bee excavates a nest and lovingly provisions it with a store of pollen for her offspring, and lays an egg inside, before beginning a new nest and doing the same again. In the mean time, Mrs Cuckoo Bee

There are a number of genera of bees that use this approach, and for many of them, the relationship is exclusive the species of Nomada for example only preys on the nests of one (sometimes a few closely related) species of Andrena bees. It is a very effective method of reproduction, requiring none of the leg work of gathering pollen.

A BAD ATTITUDE
Youre probably thinking But wont they sting me if I go about fiddling with bees? In fact, many people are afraid to get close to bees at all. The truth is that most bees are not aggressive at all, and there is a reason for that

protect it! Generally speaking, even honey bees, when encountered on their own, really couldnt care less about you. Bumble bees, in spite of living in a hive, dont have honey to protect, and as such are not as protective or defensive. If you catch a bumble bee in a net and put it in a pot to look at closely, when you open the pot to let it go, the bees first instinct is to GET AWAY. (Depending on the time of year sometimes the bees first instinct is to get its face into the nearest flower, so sometimes youll release a bee and it will go right back to the flower as if you never came along!)

Honey bees can be very defensive of their hive, and that is because they are protecting a very precious and hard-earned resource all that honey! The honey is there to feed young larvae and to help the colony through winter months. (When beekeepers harvest honey from hives, they have to replace it with sugar water to make sure that their bees have enough to get them through hard times. Because they have such a resource, they are keen to

Solitary bees are even LESS aggressive, and unless you put them through some discomfort, they can usually be handled with safety.

In addition, only female bees can sting, as a sting is a modified ovipositor (egg laying part), so as the boys never had the egg laying equipment in the first place, they never developed the ability to sting!

But the problem with being a bee person is that you will, inevitably, run across the occasional wasp. I managed to get rid of 90% of my fear by taking the decision to become extremely INTERESTED in them so instead of chucking sandwiches away, my first thought now is WHAT SPECIES IS IT?

A WORD ABOUT WASPS

Theres no escaping the fact that social wasps, however ARE aggressive, and increasingly so in the end of the summer. They are carb-crazed lunatics, with nothing but sugar on the mind (a bit like me at Christmas), and they can also become disorientated and increasingly aggressive.

I used to be terrified of them, at one point on a picnic on my honeymoon throwing my sandwich across a field because I was just so SICK of the wasps trying to eat it!

PART 3: SPECIES
COMMON BUMBLE BEES
Unlike many of the bees in this book, Bumble Bees are social, in that there are numerous individuals living in the same nest. Just like honey bees, Bumble Bees have a queen, numerous workers, and males. The queens tend to be very large versions of workers, and the males tend to look similar but with yellow markings on the face and/or shoulders (this is a general rule and there are of course, exceptions, but by and large, if you find a bee with a yellow face, it is a male!) In the case of Bumble Bees, however, you will mostly see females (either queens or workers).

Red Tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus lapidarius)

One of the easier species to spot, workers can vary lots in size. Identification: Black all over with an orange-red tail. Males are the same, but with yellow shoulders and face. Distribution: This species is found throughout the borough any park or nature reserve, particularly places with thistles! Parts of the Grange, Park Lime Pits or the Arboretum are great places to see this bee.

Buff Tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus terrestris)

White Tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus lucorum)

This is often the first bumble bee seen each year. Queens can often be seen searching for nesting sites as early as February. Identification: One dark yellow band on the thorax and one on the abdomen; tail is dirty white rusty. Distribution: This species is fairly ubiquitous across the borough any park or nature reserve is a good place to start!

Occasionally confused with the Buff-Tailed, which can be very similar. Identification: One custard- yellow band on the thorax and one on the abdomen; tail is bright white. Think Luke Warm Custard Luc-orum Distribution: This species is also found frequently and is widely distributed a common garden species!

Garden Bumble Bee (Bombus hortorum)

Tree Bumble Bee (Bombus hypnorum)

A satisfying bee to identify, and easy to remember. Identification: Look for the white tail, yellow shoulders & Saddle and long face like a horse. And where do you keep a horse? In the garden! Distribution: This species is found throughout the borough any park or nature reserve, particularly places with thistles! Merrions Wood, Barr Beacon.

A new species to the UK in 2001, and first recorded in Walsall in 2011, another easy bee. Identification: I think of this bee as Neopolitan ice cream Strawberry thorax, Chocolate body and Vanilla tail (red, black & white)! Distribution: Often found feeding from bramble flowers. Park Lime Pits, Fibbersley or along any of the canals in the borough.

Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)

Early Bumble Bee (Bombus pratorum)

Doesnt look like any of our other common garden bees, as it is pretty much one colour. Identification: Imagine this bee as wearing a fuzzy orange CARDigan the Carder Bee! Distribution: Start with your back garden for this one Often seen at Pelsall North Common, the canal through Rough Wood Chase, and on Barr Beacon.

This is a slightly smaller bee compared to other common bumble bees, and can be tricky to identify! Identification: This small bee has the custard yellow of the white-tail, but its tail is orange instead! Distribution: Often found feeding from bramble flowers. Park Lime Pits, Fibbersley or along any of the canals in the borough.

COMMON CUCKOO BEES

Its not always an easy life being a bumble bee, as many of the species frequently fall victim to parasitic species, referred to as cuckoo bees. The cuckoos until recently were considered to be in a separate genus, Psythrius so in some older field guides you might see Bombus rupestris, for example, called Psythrius rupestris, so dont let that confuse you the ID notes will all be the same. With a lifestyle in which the queen cuckoo bees overtake the hive of true bumble bees, there is no need for workers, as they benefit from the labours of the hosts workers. Because of this, there are only queens and males in cuckoos. They tend to look similar to their host species, but with much darker wings.

Red-Tailed Cuckoo Bee (Bombus rupestris)

A brilliantly easy Cuckoo Bee looks almost exactly like its host! Identification: Like its host, the Red-Tailed, this bee is dark all over with a redorange tail, but is very large with very dark wings! Distribution: This species is probably underrecorded, but has so far been found at Merrions Wood, Pelsall North Common and also on Barr Beacon.

Vestal Cuckoo Bee (Bombus vestalis)

Four-Coloured Cuckoo Bee (Bombus sylvestris)

Another bee that is likely to be under-recorded, or mistaken for species such as the White-Tailed Bumble Bee. Identification: Orange shoulder stripe, bright white tail, and yellow flashes on either side of the tail margin. Distribution: Look for this bee at the Grange, Brownhills Common, Park Lime Pits, Beacon Quarry and Mill Lane.

A misleading name when looking at females, but Identification: Males only are four colours: yellow stripes on a black body with a white tail with an orange tip females lack the orange tip! Distribution: This species is found sporadically the best place to look for it is on the northern commons, particularly Pelsall North Common.

Gypsy Cuckoo Bee (Bombus bohemicus)

Field Cuckoo Bee (Bombus campestris)

(c) Bug Botherer

A satisfying bee to identify, and easy to remember. Identification: Like the Vestal Cuckoo Bee, this one has yellow flashes either side of the tail, but they are less distinct in the Gypsy Cuckoo Bee. Distribution: This species is another that has only been found at Shire Oak Park, but it is likely to be present on the northern commons.

A highly variable cuckoo bee found in a wide variety of habitats. Identification: Like other cuckoos, VERY dark wings, usually with yellow stripes on thorax and yellowish tail, but can even be all black! Distribution: This species is found occasionally. The best places to look for it are Beacon Quarry and Shire Oak Park.

RARER BUMBLE BEES

These are a few of the rarer Bumble Bees and Cuckoo Bees that frequent Walsall. These arent likely to pop up in your garden (but you never know!). If youre on a quest to seek out the rarer bees of the borough, you could do worse than starting at Shire Oak Park. It is unclear at the time of writing whether these bees are genuinely scarce in the borough or simply underrecorded. We hope to find out over the next few seasons!

Heath Bumble Bee (Bombus jonellus)

A small bee strongly associated with heathlands, but can be found in a variety of habitats. Identification: A small bee with white tail and yellow bands, similar to Garden Bumblebee but with a short face. Distribution: Best to keep an eye out on the northern commons for this one, in particular at Shire Oak Park and Brownhills Common where it has been recorded.

Mountain Bumble Bee (Bombus monticola)

Broken-Belted Bumble Bee (Bombus soroeensis)

(c) Bex Cartwright

(c) James Lindsey via Wikimedia Commons

Another bee that, while rarer, it is easy to identify. It is a bit more picky about habitat, though, liking higher altitudes. Identification: A red tail that extends up over MOST of the abdomen, and yellow stripe on the thorax. Distribution: This species has so far only been found at Shire Oak Park, but it may be on other sites!

A bee thats tricky to identify! Identification: Similar to the White Tailed Bumble Bee, but the band on its abdomen is not completely yellow, but is broken by a patch of black hairs a tricky one! Distribution: Only one record so far in Walsall (at Shire Oak Park) but may be under-recorded due to its similarity to the White Tailed.

Common Mining Bees

One of the largest groups of mining bees is the Andrena, with 60+ species. Rather annoyingly, they are sexually dimorphic (the males and females look different to one another), so its a large group to get your head around with 120 different looking types of bee! However, there are some species in the group which can be identified readily in the field, with just a bit of practice. Ive included 9 of the commoner, more easily identified species here. The key features are the colouring of the hairs on the head, thorax and abdomen, as well as the colour of the hind legs (and the hairs on the hind legs!). If you can get your head around basic anatomy, you should be able to do these bees confidently soon.

Clarks Mining Bee (Andrena clarkella)

Usually one of the first bees seen each year out by March! Identification: Like several similar bees, a red face and abdomen with a ginger thorax, but this one has orange hind legs! Distribution: Widespread, with the species showing up wherever surveys take place, so probably still under-recorded. Park Lime Pits, Fibbersley, Shire Oak Park.

Ashy Grey Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria)

Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva)

A fantastic bee that can be easily identified and often found! Identification: Both males and females of this species are black with greyishwhite bands. In flight look completely grey. Distribution: Found on Brownhills Common, Pelsall North Common, Mill Lane and the Grange so far, but probably much more widely spread.

A stunning little bee that is a doddle to identify and can be found readily on most sites! Identification: A foxy lady, the Tawny Mining Bee has a luxurious coat of orange-red hairs on BOTH thorax and abdomen, with black underside! Distribution: Cuckoos Nook, Mill Lane, Beacon Quarry, the Northern Commons.

Gwynnes Mining Bee (Andrena bicolor)

Early Mining Bee (Andrena haemorrhoa)

Another red and black spring bee easily confused with Clarks Mining bee. Identification: Bed thorax, black abdomen, red leg HAIRS but the legs underneath are black! A very small bee. Distribution: Likely to be under-recorded, this species has so far been seen at the northern Commons, Park Lime Pits and Mill Lane.

You might need a hand-lens for this one, but with practice you can identify it with the naked eye! Identification: Red thorax, black abdomen, reddish leg hairs but the key feature is the brush of ginger hairs on the very tip of the abdomen. Distribution: Cuckoos Nook, Park Lime Pits, Beacon Quarry, Widespread!

Hawthorn Bee (Andrena carantonica)

Tormentil Mining Bee (Andrena tarsata)

An interesting bee that although solitary, shares a burrow entrance with other bees, but nests separately underground! Identification: One of the largest of the mining bees, and very hair, almost looking like a slender bumble bee! Distribution: The best places to see this bee in Walsall are The Grange and Mill Lane.

One of the UKs smallest mining bees, and an oligolectic species (feeding from one group of flowers only)! Identification: Tiny, female has yellow hind legs, male has a yellow face, and both have a slightly ridged appearance to the abdomen! Distribution: Youll only find this species where Tormentil grows, so far only on Pelsall North Common.

Andrena humilis (Andrena humilis)

Andrena nigroaenea (Andrena nigroaenea)

(c) Bex Cartwright

A nationally notable species, recent records indicate that it might have a bit of a stronghold in Walsall. Identification: Tiny with a brush of golden hairs on the tip of the abdomen. Distribution: Look for it on yellow composites (dandelions, etc.) at Barr Beacon, Brownhills Common, Pelsall North Common, Shire Oak Park and Mill Lane.

A large bee often confused with the Hawthorn Bee! Identification: Large and hairy as with Hawthorn bee, but with red (rather than pale) hairs on legs and thorax. Distribution: This species prefers sandy areas like Pelsall North Common and Shire Oak Park, but has also been found near Park Lime Pits.

Solitary Cuckoo Bees

The bees of the genus Nomada are the group that most often prey on the nests of Andrena bees. These bees are the cleptoparasites, laying an egg in the nest of their host to steal the hardearned pollen stores of the Andrena. Its sort of a sneaky way of getting on in life, but you have to admit that it makes evolutionary sense an efficient way to provide for your offspring. The relationships between parasite and host are often species-specific, with a Nomada species only predating on the nests of one or a select few species of Andrena. This means that if you record Nomada flava, for example, you know that Andrena carantonica must be nearby! Two bees for the price of one!

Goodens Nomad Bee (Nomada goodeniana)

A cleptoparasite of several Andrena species. Identification: Small, with black striped abdomen with no red patches. Two yellow patches on the thorax, behind the head. Distribution: So far found at Brownhills Common, Pelsall North Common, Shire Oak Park and Mill Lane, but could be found anywhere its host species are found.

Ginger Nomad Bee (Nomada lathburiana)

Red-Horned Nomad Bee (Nomada ruficornis)

(c) Bug Botherer

Not its real common name, as it doesnt have one, but it is one of the easiest to identify so Ive included it Identification: This tri-coloured species has a dense coat of gingery hairs on its head and thorax! Distribution: This bee has only been recorded at Shire Oak Park and Fibbersley but could be under-recorded, so one to look out for!

A cuckoo bee that parasitises the Early Mining Bee. Identification: Reddish stripes on a dark thorax, and an abdomen with red and yellow markings. It has a mandible with two distinct teeth. Distribution: A northern species, recorded at Brownhills and Pelsall North Commons, but distribution of its host is more widespread.

Other Solitary Bees

There are numerous genera of solitary bees not yet touched on in this book, including Osmia (Masonry Bees), Lasioglossum (a genus of small mining bees), Hylaeus (white faced bees), Halictus (sweat bees), Megachile (leafcutter bees), Coelioxys (point-tailed bees) and more. For this first edition of the Bees of Walsall, Ive included a few of my favourites and they are relatively easy to spot!

Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis)

A bee that does what it says on the tin: bicornis means two horns. Identification: Has the rounded abdomen like other Osmia species, and is generally red and black female has two distinct facial horns. Distribution: Common wherever there is sand/mud for excavating. Park Lime Pits, Cuckoos Nook & the Dingle, Aldridge Airport

Willoughbys Leafcutter (Megachile willoughbiella)

Hairy Footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes)

A large bee, can be mistaken for a bumble bee. Identification: Megachile bees can be difficult to separate in the field, but they all have the general characteristic of carrying pollen on the underside of their abdomen rather than their legs. Distribution: Look in parks and gardens, particularly on Thistles. The Grange, Brownhills Common.

A very fast bee, often seen bombing around spring flowers! Identification: Looks just like a small, black bumble bee with orange hairs on the hind legs. Males have creamcoloured markings on their faces. Distribution: The first record of this species for Walsall was in 2012 at the BioBlitz at The Grange highly likely to be under-recorded.

SOCIAL WASPS
There are 9 species of social wasp in the UK. With the exception of the hornet, the rest fall into two groups: Vespula and Dolichovespula (Vespies and Dollies!)

Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)

A common and well-known species! Identification: A very common and recognisable black and yellow wasp. Small malar space, straight shoulder stripes. This species nests underground. Distribution: Theres probably one on your kitchen window right now! Look for it in woodlands. Merrions Wood, Rough Wood, The Grange.

You can tell to which of these two groups a wasp belongs by looking at the space between its eye and its jaws if the gap is large (top left) its a Dollie, if it is narrow (top right), it is a Vespie! If you fancy getting into a relatively easy group, with only a handful of species, social wasps are a great place to start!

Red Wasp (Vespula rufa)

Median Wasp (Dolichovespula media)

An aptly named species! Identification: One of two species with red patches on the abdomen! A hand lens shows a NARROW space between the eye and jaw (the Norway Wasp has a WIDE space). Distribution: This species is probably underrecorded. Shire Oak Park and Brownhills Common on Gorse bushes.

A species easily confused with hornets! Identification: This striking wasp has orange patches, and a yellow tick symbol on each shoulder think of it as wearing Nike shoulder pads! Distribution: Only found in two Walsall woodlands so far: Rough Wood and Merrions Wood, but likely under-recorded.

PART 4: SITES
There are 250+ parks and open spaces in Walsall, and 30+ Countryside Sites. The sites I have included here all fall into the latter group. Many of the sites are now Local Nature Reserves, and almost all of them bear some scars or signs of their industrial past, from quarrying limestone and sandstone, ironworks and foundries and their associated buildings, former railway sites and even a former golf course, now converted into a nature reserve. Walsall is an incredible example of how a landscape can thrive in spite of (and in some cases because of) its industrial past. Insects (and bees in particular), are a way in which ecologists can gauge the heath of an environment.

Brownhills Common

Species Count: 59
Site Description: Brownhills common has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for the value of its heathland habitats. It is managed, in part, for its resident aculeate hymenoptera. Star Species: Coelioxys elongata (A SharpTailed Bee) can be found on Brownhills Common it is the only site where ANY Coelioxys bees have been recorded. They are conspicuous bees, with abdomens which taper to a point. They superficially resemble Megachiles, their prey species.

Pelsall North Common

Shire Oak Park

Species Count: 58
Site Description: A former iron works in Pelsall, the common is largely heathland and scrub, but with remnant cottage gardens provides an unusual mix of wild and escaped garden plants. It is bordered on the south by the Wyrley and Essington canal. Its areas of wet heath provide habitat for orchids as well as other species endemic to wet heaths. Star Species: Andrena tarsata (Tormentil Mining Bee) can be found foraging on Tormentil in areas of wet heath from June August.

Species Count: 46
Site Description: A former sand quarry in North Walsall, Shire Oak is one of the only places in the borough with loose sand as a habitat. The mosaic of young birch woodland, scrub, heather and exposed sand quarry face provide nesting and foraging opportunities for a wide variety of bees and wasps. Star Species: Bombus Monticola and Bombus sorooensis are found on this site, and (so far) nowhere else in Walsall. They are two of 10 Bumble Bee species that can be found at Shire Oak Park

Park Lime Pits

Beacon Quarry

Species Count: 10
Site Description: Park Lime Pits is an area of woodland surrounding a series of pools, which are fed by a small watercourse called Adams Brook. The site is surrounded by Lime Pits Farm, which is managed for conservation, with nectar mixes and wide arable margins set aside for wildlife. Star Species: This site doesnt have the impressive species list of other sites, but it is the perfect place to cut your entomological teeth, because many of the species of Bumble and Mining Bee in this book are present on site.

Species Count: 19
Site Description: A former sand quarry (AKA Pinfold Quarry / Pinfold Lane Quarry)is close to Barr Beacon, near the Walsall/Birmingham border. This site has exposed quarry face peppered with bee nest holes, woodland and wide open areas of scrub that are just perfect for foraging bees! Star Species: Beacon quarry is great for Bumble Bees, and is one of only a few places where you can see the Field Cuckoo bee. Its also a great place to look for leafcutter bees and solitary digger wasps in the open areas.

Cuckoos Nook & the Dingle

The Grange

Species Count: 24
Site Description: A dynamic landscape, the woodland landscape changes at one end from acid-loving woodland species over carboniferous coal seams, to Silurian limestone and the calcareous plants that go along with it. Surrounded on all sides by agricultural land, there are ample nesting and foraging opportunities for bees and wasps! Star Species: Cuckoos Nook & the Dingle is fantastic for Ectemnius and Crocosserus digger wasps, and Chrysis Ruby-Tailed wasps.

Species Count: 11
Site Description: A former golf course, The Grange is Walsalls newest nature reserve, now being managed for wildlife with meadows, tall ruderal and native tree plantations. Star Species: Megachile bees can readily be seen foraging on thistles in the summer, and keep an eye out on the old golf bunkers, which are perfect, sandy habitat for groundnesting mining bees. The first biological records for the site were in 2012, with 7 species of bumble bee being recorded in a single day!

Merrions Wood

Mill Lane

Species Count: 11
Site Description: Primarily a woodland site, Merrions also has areas of meadow and a series of ponds, ditches and ephemeral pools. Star Species: This is THE site to start looking at social wasps, as Median Wasps, Common Wasps and at least one other species (Either Red or Norway Wasp) can be found here, as well as some pretty rare species of solitary wasps like Stigmus pendulus. But keep your eye out for spectacular cuckoo bees like the Red-tailed Cuckoo, as the surrounding parks and gardens draw in all kinds of species!

Species Count: 62
Site Description: Mill Lane lies on an old railway line, and trains still pass nearby to this day. The site lies at the bottom of Goscote Valley, only a 10 minute walk from Walsall town centre. The most urban of our reserves is the surprising jewel in Walsalls crown our best site for all kinds of species of bee and wasp. Star Species: Whatever youre looking for you will find it here: Bumble Bees, Mining Bees, Masonry Bees, Social Wasps, Digger Wasps, Potter Wasps and Leafcutter Bees can all be found in the wet grassland and surrounding old railway embankments.

PART 5: HOW TO STUDY BEES

EQUIPMENT
To begin, there are four bits of equipment that you will need: A net, some bug pots, a hand lens and a field guide. So Ill talk a bit about each:

Nets Choosing a net need not be difficult, but you have a few things to consider: a) do you need it to be collapsible? b) what colour bag is best c) how long a handle do you want/need and d) where to get it from. You will no doubt find your own preferences as you progress, but here is my advice:

WHERE TO START
So I know this can seem a bit intimidating, and you are probably wondering how on earth you get started with bees. With so many species, how will you ever get to grips with them? Id be lying if I said it was easy, and Im certainly no expert myself, but I can promise you that if you put in the time (in the field and/or at the microscope) you will become confident in at least one group in a single season, and after 2 or 3 seasons you will have naturally branched out into other groups of bees.

Collapsible Nets can be an advantage if you are not driving, and you want to be able to carry a net with you.

You may feel perfectly happy carrying a butterfly net onto the bus with you, or you may be a bit self-conscious about it, so consider how you are going to get out to sites and how you are going to carry your net.

Whether or not you opt for the portable, crushable-type net, Id highly recommend starting by just buying a standard butterfly net with a white bag. This will cost about 25 and will have about a 40cm diameter net, about 70cm deep. White bags are generally accepted as being best for beehunting, as the bees show up better against the white mesh and are easier to locate and pot up.

Bug Pots I tend to use two nets: a standard butterfly net that I keep in the car, and a lightweight, crushable net that I keep in my bag at all times. A crushable net is usually 30cm in diameter and 50cm deep, but folds up into something NEARLY pocket-sized. They tend to have very short handles, so your net will not be at the end of a pole. There are advantages in this, in that you are likely to be more coordinated with a short handled net, but you will not have the reach you would have with a long-handled net. Most crushable nets have a hollow handle into which you can push an extension. There are more types of bug pots out there than youve had hot dinners, and over time, you may find that you fall in love with one particular type.

In general, you want something that you can see through really well, though, so plastic pots are

not always the best as they scuff up and become cloudy over time.

be enough to keep you going in your first summer.

Hand Lenses Investing in an expensive hand lens is one of those things that you will probably do in future years (you can splurge on achromatic, double-ended hand lenses that cost upwards of 50). However the Singlet Loupe 10x21 is a metal lens that only costs a tenner and is certainly good enough for studying bees.

The other consideration is the size you can use a jam jar if you feel so inclined, but there are times when you want the bee to keep still (which can be done by pushing a bit of tissue gently into the pot to move the bee towards the closed end, gently restricting its movements while you get a good look at those identifying features! I opt for glass pots that are 25mm diameter and either 50mm or 100mm deep. The disadvantage of glass is that they break, and so you may get through quite a few in a season, but for me, the benefits greatly outweigh the drawbacks. A set of 12 glass pots will knock you back about 4-5, and should

Field Guides I should start out by saying that there arent any books that cover both Bumble Bees and Solitary Bees. Generally you will want a Bumble Bee field guide to get you started, and youll naturally follow this up with internet content and keys to solitary bees.

The book Bumble Bees by Oliver Prys-Jones is a great book for bumble bees, although there are some smaller, less complex texts out there too. Try the Field Guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland by Martin Edwards, which has a fantastic chart for narrowing your bee down to a few species in seconds. Alternatively, you could opt for the fantastic A Pocket Guide to the Bumblebees of Britain and Ireland by Bryan Pinchen if youre after a truly pocket-sized guide.

MICROSCOPY
Theres a whole other level of studying bees that may or may not be for you. Microscopy can enable you to identify many species which you cannot identify in the field.

However, in order to be able to identify species under the microscope, you need three things: A microscope, a key to the group of bees you are looking at, and a specimen to look at. It is entirely possible to teach yourself microscopy by visiting and viewing museum collections. However, work on existing specimens does not generate any biological records, or provide any information about the assemblage of species on sites, which could directly feed into management decisions and aid conservation.

Theres lots of other equipment you can add to your arsenal, but in general, youre looking at 25 for a net, 10 for a lens, 5 for pots and 10 for a field guide: A whole new hobby for 50!

Unfortunately, in order to identify and record many species, you would need to take specimens, and that means killing individuals in order to record the species. You can certainly still enjoy identifying and recording bees without taking specimens, but there are some cases in which it can be directly beneficial to the species as a whole by successfully identifying an individual. Let me give you an example: The photo below is Stigmus pendulus, a solitary wasp which I collected from Merrions Wood.

features which distinguish it are invisible without the aid of a microscope. A tiny patch near the base of the wing is shiny in S. pendulus and rough/matte in S. solskyi. If I hadnt taken the specimen, and identified it under the microscope, we simply wouldnt know that this fantastic, rare creature lives in our woodland. We can now take the species needs into account when writing and implementing the woodland management plan for the site. Having said that, microscopy can be pretty gruelling, so Id borrow a microscope to see if you get on with it before buying one, as they can be pricey (Im including details of the company I use). Another thing which can be tricky, is acquiring good entomological keys, as there are not many in circulation. We are anticipating that a new key for Andrena bees will be published soon. In the meantime, Im also including some links and resources to point you in the right direction!

The problem is that though Stigmus pendulus is a rare species, it is almost completely indistinguishable from Stigmus solskyi, a nearly identical, yet common species. The wasp itself is so small that its identifying

RESOURCES
Suppliers of Equipment Natural History Book Suppliers (NHBS) Pots, nets, hand lenses, nest boxes and Natural History Books http://www.nhbs.com/equipment/ Watkins and Doncaster - Entomological Equipment http://www.watdon.co.uk/the-naturalists/ Metascientific Novex AP & AR Microscopes http://metascientific.com/

Help With Identification iSpot a fantastic website where boffins identify stuff for you from photos you upload! Quite addictive, youve been warned! http://www.ispot.org.uk/ Wild About Britain a forum where folks post questions, topics and photos for identification online. Lots of proper boffins go on here and they are very friendly and full of great information! http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/ NatureSpot a nice little site with species info including descriptions. http://www.naturespot.org.uk/home Nature Conservation Imaging excellent photos with id tips http://www.natureconservationimaging.com/ The Bees of Surrey http://www.nhbs.com/bees_of_surrey_tefno_157965.html and The Wasps of Surrey http://www.nhbs.com/wasps_of_surrey_tefno_177199.html both amazing books that make good bedtime reading lots of identification features, etc. Not just for people in Surrey!

Training Courses Field Studies Council There is a FSC centre at Preston Montford, just an hours drive from Walsall, where you can undertake all kinds of entomology couses. http://www.field-studies-council.org/ Bio.Fell Biodiversity Fellows http://www.field-studies-council.org/supporting-you/fscprojects/current-projects/biodiversity-fellows.aspx

Bee Conservation Bumblebee Conservation Trust http://bumblebeeconservation.org/ Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society (BWARS) http://www.bwars.com/ Buglife http://www.buglife.org.uk/ Royal Entomological Society http://www.royensoc.co.uk/

Best Bee Recording Apps RecordWildlife - iPhone iSpot - Android Sightings iPhone / iPad FSC Wildlife Guides iPhone Collins British Wildlife iPhone (6.99)

Checklist for your Kit Bag Butterfly net (white) Bug pots Field Guide/s Hand Lens Digital Camera Tissue or handkerchief (for immobilising bees) Sunblock Hat Decent Shoes Insect repellent (ironic, eh?) Bite/sting Cream Phone (charged up!) GPS or phone app with GPS Water! Binoculars for those bees you cant reach! A friend safety in numbers! (Obviously this wont fit in your bag!)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Morgan Bowers is a naturalist and entomologist studying Aculeate Hymenoptera in the West Midlands. She works as Senior Countryside Ranger for Walsall Countryside Services, and volunteers as Surveys officer for the Black Country and Staffordshire Naturalists, bat care coordinator for the Birmingham and Black Country Bat Group and voluntary roost visitor for Natural England. Morgan is a regular blogger on her own blog The Reremouse, the BrumBats blog & website and the Black Country & Staffordshire Naturalists web pages, has written guest blogs for the Bat Conservation Trust, and was Editor of the Provisional Atlas of Amphibians and Reptiles of Birmingham and the Black Country (Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country, 2005). She gives regular talks about citizen science and the use of social media in conservation and ecology.

An advocate of Citizen Science, Morgan studied Physical Geography at the University of Wolverhampton followed by Biological Recording at the University of Birmingham. She is also an active participant in the Field Studies Councils Invertebrate Challenge (Aculeate Hymenoptera) and bio.fell programmes, and is a member of the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society (BWARS) She tweets on @TheReremouse