A completely up to date introduction to the commonest group of bees in
Britain.
Bees, for most people mean honey or bumble bees. In fact, the honey bees
and bumblebees make up only a small proportion of the bee species that
live in Britain, while the other bees are the great majority (230 or
more species). Now it is recognised that these other bees play an
important role in the pollination of crops and wild flowering plants.
This has prompted much new research. A shift to gardening for wildlife
has brought the solitary bees into sharper relief: many people now
recognise mining bees, leaf-cutters and mason bees in their gardens, and
even provide 'bee hotels' for them.
This book draws on the great wave of new knowledge to give a wonderful
insight into the complicated lives of solitary bees. The main focus is
on the wonderful fascination and complexity in the behaviour and ecology
of this remarkable group of insects. It uses many of the authors own
observations alongside the studies provided by others, to discover the
numerous strategies used by male bees to find females and persuade them
to mate. It follows the females in their search for a place to make
their nest, and their gathering of materials - symmetrical sections of
leaves, mud, chewed-up leaf fragments, plant hair or resin - to make the
cells into which they place a store of nectar and pollen and lay a
single egg. We watch them sealing up the nest, securing it until the
following year when the new generation appears. We explore the
interactions between flowering plants and their bee visitors, asking
what the plants get from the relationship, as well as how the bees
select the plants they visit, and the ingenuity required to extract
pollen, nectar and other rewards. Finally, we look at the places where
bees flourish, highlighting what can be done to encourage bees and thus
ensure they continue to pollinate our flowers and crops.
