Citizen science

Well, this is exciting. To me, at any rate: I get quite fizzy whenever I'm able to add a new species to my life list, and this is one I never expected to encounter in the Shire. 

It's a Four-banded Flower Bee (Anthophora quadrimaculata), and it's currently listed as Nationally Scarce - though there's a comment on its BWARS page that "in view of numerous recent records, this status should be reviewed." It could be that our changing climate is making it easier for A. quadrimaculata to live in the UK, and that increasing population pressure in its former south-eastern strongholds is causing it to spread further west and north; or it could be that it's actually never been as rare as was previously thought, and its under-recording is being corrected thanks to the large number of civilians now engaging in wildlife recording via iRecord and iNaturalist. 

The truth probably lies somewhere between these two explanations, but I'm prepared to stick my neck out and assert that this species hasn't been living in this neck of the woods for many seasons, because I've been at this malarkey for a few years now, I record my findings fairly assiduously, and I think I have a reasonable eye for an unusual insect. That said, this is a pretty worn specimen, so I can't pat myself too hard on the back: he's probably been around for several weeks by this point, and I'd never noticed him before. In fact, it was his black and grey colouring, along with an unusual turn of speed and the high-pitched buzzing he was producing, that made me do a double-take as he zoomed through the black horehound, and set out to capture him on camera before he could disappear again. When fresh he would have been bright ginger, as you can see from the pinned specimens in Steven Falk's album, but he should still have been pretty distinctive. In fact, I now remember that a small ginger bee did go through the garden two or three weeks ago at somewhere near Mach 1 (or Mach 0.5, at any rate), but it only showed up on camera as a gold blur crossing the frame. I wish now that I'd managed to follow it and get a better shot.

This is the third "lifer" bee I've recorded in the village this year - three weeks ago I got the Harebell Carpenter Bee (Chelostoma campanularum) and the Brown-banded Carder Bee (Bombus humilis) within a few days of each other - and it seems clear that however tough I'm finding the current heat wave, bees are having an excellent season.