Scilly bees
There are a variety of bees to be found in Scilly, some are rare and have specific requirements. All bees need a flower rich landscape to forage for food.
A bee’s life cycle begins with an egg that hatches into a larva, which then becomes a pupa before emerging as an adult bee. In the case of bumblebees, the eggs are laid by the queen who produces other female workers. Later in the season male bees and new queens are produced. Before winter the queen mates, ready to begin a new colony in the spring, as the rest of the colony will die out.
- Scilly bumblebees Bumblebees are social bees that live in colonies with the queens starting a new colony each spring. The UK currently has 24 species of bumblebee and Scilly has 6 species.
- Mining bees These solitary bees can be seen around their nest holes along ‘ram’ cliffs, earth filled hedges and walls or bare ground. They can be found on all of the inhabited and many uninhabited islands, and can be seen foraging in a range of habitats.
- Plasterer bees These bees nest in holes and get their name because they smooth the walls of their nest holes with secretions. They can be found on heathland and coastal grasslands.
- Leaf-cutter bees These bees nest in burrows and cut round sections out of leaves for lining their nests. These bees can be found on heathland and coastal grasslands.
- Cuckoo bees These are bees that imitate a particular bee and take advantage of their nest. Cuckoo bumblebees look very much like their host and it is not known if they use their patterns to take over a nest or use scent. The females lack the pollen baskets that other bees have.
Honeybee
A number of local people keep bee hives and the workers from these forage far afield in gardens and on heathland. Honey bees can be found on all the inhabited and some uninhabited islands.
Other insects
There are some wasps, hoverflies and other insects that look like bees. What may seem to be a bee may not be, but note that hoverflies - the commonest bee mimics - have only two wings (bees have four). Equally some bees do not look like bees, being very small or wasp-like.
