A Common Solitary Bee

I was out searching for Green Hairstreaks again at Roughdown on Monday. Spotted 4 but also came across one of the solitary bee species present on site. I think this one is Andrena nitida.

The main ID features are the “bright, foxy-brown hair on the thorax and a polished black abdomen (see insert A). Females have thin apical side-bars of white pubescence on abdominal segments 1-3 (just visible in insert C), and males have copious white facial hair, especially on the clypeus.” This is a female so minimal facial hair (insert B).

It likes open grassland habitat and doesn’t need or prefer bare earth sites for nests. It’s fairly common throughout southern Britain and present from April until June.

I did note a Nomada species fairly close by but didn't get a good enough view. These are "cuckoo bees" targeting the nest sites of Andrena mining bee species. Like Cuckoos, they don’t bother to create their own nests and provide for their young. Instead, they parasitise the nests of mining bees, laying their eggs in the “cells provisioned by the host bee. When the cuckoo bee larva hatches it consumes the host larva's pollen ball, and, if the female kleptoparasite has not already done so, kills and eats the host larva.” Nice!

A bit late adding this observation but, along with the other more common butterfly species now emerging, a male Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) was also around Lower Roughdown last Thursday 23rd.

Green Hairstreaks

At Lower Roughdown, I was really pleased to come across a couple of the rare Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi) butterflies today. The colony was found last year by a dedicated butterfly surveyor and it is wonderful that they bred and made it into a second year. Purely by chance, I managed to photograph both specimens. One had noticeable scuff marks across the underside of the right forewing.

Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi), specimen 1, Lower Roughdown

Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi), specimen 1, Lower Roughdown

Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi), specimen 2 (scuff marks on right underwing), Lower Roughdown

Another lovely butterfly to see today was a female Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus). I only saw one at Roughdown Common last year and, in 2013, only 2 were recorded on the butterfly survey. In the hours that I was on site today, it only settled once and briefly, so I had to be very quick to grab photographs!

There were at least 2 Willow Warblers, 4+ Chiffchaff & 3+ Blackcaps all singing close by. In the chalk bowel, there was a Willow Warbler and a Chiffchaff and both had very odd songs, as if trying to add a little of the other's song into their own. I didn't have the time to wait and record them, unfortunately - one for another day or someone else to investigate. There were a couple of Mistle Thrush pairs, one adult from each pair was busy collecting worms, presumably for young.