Species: Nomad bee - unnamed 1 (Nomada sp.)
Family: Bumble and Honey Bees (APIDAE)
Category: Insects (Other)
Location: SE
A. Insects (Other)
More extensive information on insects can be found in a separate blog post.
B. Bumble and Honey Bees (APIDAE)
Nomad bees are a genus of small, relatively hairless bees that often resemble small wasps. They are between 4 and 9 millimetres in length.
All Nomad bees steal from other species of bees: they are cleptoparasites. Females enter the host's nest burrow to lay eggs before any cells have been sealed up. When its grub hatches from the egg, it will devour the host egg or grub with its large jaws before feeding on the food store that the host parent had provisioned the cells with.
There are 34 species of British Nomad bees. Differentiating one from another requires considerable magnification - and knowledge.
The Nomada genus of bees belong to the Apidiae family, which are commonly known as Bumble and Honey Bees.
C. Nomad bee - unnamed 1 (Nomada sp.)
The first photograph below is of a male Nomad bee that closely resembles a Fork-jawed Nomad Bee, judging from the angle of the one photograph we have. Exact identifications of this species from other in its family is almost impossible from a photograph.
This individual was photographed in late-May, as it briefly settled on a Bramble leaf. Male Nomad bees do not sting, whereas females do.
Images
Nomad bee - unnamed 1
This individual was photographed in late-May, as it briefly settled on a Bramble leaf. It is a male.
Nomad bee - unnamed 1
Nomad bees are small, relatively hairless bees that often resemble small wasps. They are 4 to 9 millimetres in length.
This Nomad bee was photographed in mid-April on a Bramble leaf.
It is not clear whether this photograph and the one above show the same species of bee. With there being 34 known species in this family in the British Isles, varieties between each species are small. That this individual has two yellow spots on its scutellum may or may not make it a different species to the one in the first photograph, as some members of this family have such spots if female, yet none if male.
