Happy Solitary bee week everyone! Did you know that in the UK we have over 240 species of solitary bees? This makes up 90% of bee species!

Why are solitary bees so important you may ask? There are many reasons, but an important one is that they (along with other pollinators) are responsible for around a third of all the food we eat. For some crops, wild insects such as solitary bees are considered the most effective at pollinating their flowers! Insect numbers are declining, and our solitary bees face a dual threat from both habitat loss and the increased use of chemicals in farming. Which is why we’re fighting to bring back this wildlife by making more space for them.

Solitary bees come in a range of colours and patterns, some easily identifiable, whilst others are much trickier to tell apart. There are a variety of plants that solitary bees help to pollinate across a huge range of habitats, including parks, woodlands and even in your garden. They can also nest in different places, such as in hollow plant stems which have been left uncut over the winter, bee hotels you may have in your garden or schools, and sandy paths across our parks or heathlands.

Want to learn how to identify some solitary bees you might see in Staffordshire? You’ve come to the right place! In this blog I’ll share a few of the more easily identifiable species that we can find, which also like nesting at our lowland heathland sites, such as Gentleshaw Common SSSI.  We will also explore the work SWT does to provide more space for these beautiful bees to thrive.

The tawny mining bee

The female tawny mining bee (Andrena fulva) is easily recognisable with its striking orange-red coloured body and black face and legs. They can be found in many habitats and create a hole in the ground to lay their eggs.  As well as nesting in soils such as your garden, at Gentleshaw Common they nest in the sandy paths and bee scrapes, leaving a little mound of sand with an entrance hole that looks similar to a tiny volcano!

Bees need beaches

Over the last three years at Gentleshaw Common we have been busy buzzing around to create some fantastic large sandy scrapes in the quarry area, also known as bee scrapes or bee beaches. These scrapes provide foraging habitat for a number of other insects too, such as the green tiger beetle. They are important basking areas for butterflies and reptiles, and provide an ideal nesting spot for the solitary bees found on the site. We have help to create the scrapes with diggers. Our fantastic volunteers and staff then keep them clear and free from plants like bracken, whilst allowing plants such as heather to regenerate so we have more pollinator friendly plants.

Ashy mining bee

Another common species of solitary bee you may come across in a variety of habitats is the ashy mining bee (Andrena cineraria). With its beautiful shiny abdomen and grey hairs, it is very noticeable.  As a mining bee, this species creates holes and mounds in soils and sandy areas, especially near short grassy areas, like on the edge of the bee scrapes or paths. Sometimes lots of holes can be seen at a time, and you can often find more than one female digging away in the same area. The females create the hole and will cover the entrance up once it’s finished, or if the weather changes and it begins to rain.

Nesting needs

The nesting holes created or used by solitary bees are filled with many individual cells. Each cell contains an egg, and a pollen store for when the larvae hatch, providing them with everything they need until they emerge as adults. Depending on the species of solitary bee, and if they are ground nesters, like the mining bees, or aerial nesters such as leafcutter bees, these cells can be closed with sand and soils, leaves, mud or even a saliva mix.

Clarke's mining bee

Last up but by no means least, we have the clarke’s mining bee (Andrena clarkella) which can be spotted in Staffordshire as early as mid-February. Some females can still be seen in April and even May if the weather has been kind. The female clarke’s mining bee has a gorgeous reddish ginger fluffy thorax and black fluffy abdomen. They love nesting in warm south-facing sandy slopes and, although solitary, they can be seen in large numbers on the same slope faces. At Gentleshaw Common they have also been spotted in smaller eroded path edges where the bare sand is exposed to the sun.

Creating space to bring nature back

At Gentleshaw Common, and our other heathland sites across Staffordshire, much of our time is focused on restoring the heathland habitat by clearing secondary scrub growth. This means clearing tree saplings and re-opening heathland glades, which allows the heathland flora to flourish. New plant growth, such as heather and bilberry, is a fantastic source of pollen for the solitary bees and their young. By opening up the heathland again and creating corridors of open areas, the bees can move more freely around the site to find new nesting sites and pollen sources.

As insect numbers are in decline across the UK it is vitally important that we all do what we can to help make safe havens for them.