2023 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. Best remembered as the father of biogeography and co-discoverer of natural selection, he was an all-round fascinating person. Evolutionary biologist, entomologist, and Darwin and Wallace scholar James T. Costa gives an in-depth, intimate, and updated story of his life.
Given the many other available Wallace biographies, why read this one? Because Costa can safely be considered an expert on the history of evolutionary thought. Next to three books on Darwin since 2009, Costa has also studied Wallace’s life and work since 2010, resulting in three books, not to mention numerous academic papers and magazine articles. What this means in practical terms is that Costa provides context, context, context.
As such, he explains the relevance and novelty of Wallace’s ideas at the time (and I am going to be very selective here). For instance, Wallace was one of the first to insist on the recording of accurate location data when collecting animals and plants. When moving east and west in the Malay Archipelago, he thus noticed that the fauna on some neighbouring islands differed sharply, a local division later named the Wallace Line. It undermined geologist Charles Lyell’s idea that environment alone determines distribution.
Alfred Russel Wallace, c1895.
Speaking of Lyell, some of Wallace’s most underrecognized ideas concern transmutation (as evolution was known back then). Lyell claimed that species were immutable entities and that the fossil record reflected separate rounds of creation. Wallace disagreed; he was never one to shy away from discussion, even with intellectual giants. His then-novel idea was that “every species arises in immediate proximity to a preexisting and closely related species” (p. 158). But how? Wallace’s flash of insight on natural selection, the remarkable confluence of Darwin and Wallace’s ideas, and the case Wallace was building against Lyell are all deeply interesting topics that I am deferring to other reviews. Instead, let me briefly consider his take on anthropology. Wallace was fascinated with the indigenous people he encountered and his approach “was nothing less than a natural history of humans” (p. 196), applying the same evolutionary logic he applied to other animals. Against the background of a divided discipline back in London between polygenists (who saw races as separate entities, even species) and monogenists (who saw “races” as variations of a single human species), Wallace hewed closer to the latter.
Costa also provides much historical context on Wallace the person. He is rightly remembered as a humanitarian scholar for whom justice was his lodestar. Utopian socialist Robert Owen left a deep impression and the young Wallace was a regular at the halls of science and mechanics’ institutes that were just then popping up everywhere. These promoted self-improvement of working-class people through education. His full conversion to socialism came much later in life though. Wallace was an early advocate of women’s rights, supported the suffragette movement, and more than once campaigned for scholarly societies to allow women in. He also campaigned for land reform, and in hindsight regretted that many of his early survey jobs served ongoing efforts at land enclosure that effectively screwed the poor.
Cyriopalus wallacei Pascoe, 1866 (Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae) collected by Alfred Russel Wallace, via flickr.
Now, how for some context to the above context? Despite the above character sketch, it would be an oversimplification to celebrate Wallace as “an almost uniquely nonracist, egalitarian Victorian […] who was “woke”” (p. 166) before the rest of us were. Sure, he was respectful towards indigenous people, credited his field assistants, and criticized European civilization. But for all that, he was a product of Britain’s global empire. Wherever he went, he could call on officials, transportation networks, and crews of unnamed porters and boatsmen for assistance. And despite his opposition to slavery, he frequently turned a blind eye to slave-holding friends and expats.
Further commenting on Wallace’s character (here comes more context), Costa admits that Wallace’s trusting nature could border on the gullible. His interest in spiritualism caused disbelief among his peers, even while they praised his scientific achievements. Costa points out that many science historians forget how it impregnated Victorian society at all levels and even some of his critics attended séances suspiciously often. The other faux pas is Wallace’s opposition to smallpox vaccination campaigns. Wallace, himself vaccinated, was all about the science, but this was in its infancy in the 19th century. “We cannot hold those who lived in the past to standards based on modern understanding” (p. 353), pleads Costa. Fortunately, we find him on the right side of history where eugenics is concerned, which he denounced as “the meddlesome interference of an arrogant, scientific priestcraft” (p. 490, note 52).
Costa’s writing is lively, occasionally interjected with chatty remarks or witticism that made me chuckle. When Wallace writes that Alexander von Humboldt’s travel narrative gave him a desire to visit the tropics, Costa responds that “Wallace got a “desire to visit the tropics” all right” (p. 46). When Wallace scathingly remarks that indigenous women in New Guinea are “the least engaging specimens of the fair sex” he had ever met, Costa parries that “chances are he was not viewed by the locals as the hottest specimen of white European manhood either” (p. 231). And when only the religious Lyell is willing to take serious Wallace’s new spiritualist tendencies, Costa imagines how “Darwin could only shake his head at the two of them” (p. 310). I found these a welcome source of levity.
Beetles collected in the Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace, via flickr.
Much more can be said about both Wallace and this wonderful biography. Wallace left behind a mountain of written material for historians. Instead, let me circle back to my first question. Why read this biography? In fairness, other biographies provide details omitted here. Far more important, however, is what Costa adds. Much unpublished information has come to light since the 2013 centenary and Costa has drawn extensively on the archive of material that Wallace’s grandsons had. This was gradually annotated and digitised from 2010 onwards as part of the publicly accessible Wallace Correspondence Project and has allowed Costa to add much intimate detail from hundreds of personal letters.
Given the above, Costa’s stated aim of writing an updated biography has been more than realised; this book is a triumph! I tremendously enjoyed Radical by Nature and was very impressed with the depth of its scholarship. Next to an intimate portrait of this most fascinating scholar, Costa provides much detail on a critical period of scientific development and the social context in which it unfolded.
Radical by Nature is available from the NHBS bookstore here.
Each year, Butterfly Conservation urges the public to venture outdoors and record their local lepidoptera populations with the Big Butterfly Count – a UK-wide survey aiming to assess the health of butterflies and day-flying moths. The count involves recording the number and species of butterflies in a chosen area for fifteen minutes and uploading results to their official website.
There are around 130 day-flying macro moths and 59 species of butterfly in the UK. These highly sensitive animals are key indicators of environmental health and play a crucial role in pollination across the country. The latest State of the UK Butterflies report, an assessment on British butterflies, found that the group has declined by 80% since the 1970s. The Big Butterfly Count allows the health and trends of these species to be assessed, improving our understanding of their conservation and threats.
This year’s count took place between Friday 12th July and Sunday 4th August, and the results from nationwide counts can be found on Butterfly Conservation’s interactive map. Over 140,000 counts were taken during this time, recording nearly 1,000,000 butterflies. Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus), Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina), Large White (Pieris brassicae), Small White (Pieris rapae) and Peacock (Aglais io) butterflies were the most recorded species across all data points, accounting for over 670,000 sightings.
This years count revealed the lowest numbers on record, and has led to the announcement of a nationwide ‘butterfly emergency’. On average, seven butterflies and day-flying moths were seen per count, half of last years average. This years count observed significant downward trends in the group, with around 81% of species showing declines, and 600,000 less butterflies recorded than last year (which equates to around a third of 2023’s total observations). 9,000 counts did not record any butterflies, which is the highest number recorded in the history of the count.
We participated in the Big Butterfly Count this year, and are excited to share our results below.
The collectives formed by social insects fascinate us, whether it is bees, ants, or termites. But it would be a mistake to think that the individuals making up such collectives are just mindless cogs in a bigger machine. It is entirely reasonable to ask, as pollination ecologist Stephen Buchmann does here, What a Bee Knows. This book was published almost a year after Lars Chittka’s The Mind of a Bee, which I reviewed previously. I ended that review by asking what Buchmann could add to the subject. Actually, despite some unavoidable overlap, a fair amount.
Though I will leave a comparison and recommendation for the end of this review, I can already tell you that What a Bee Knows is a different beast altogether. Buchmann’s approach to convincing you that bees are sophisticated insects is to provide a general and wide-ranging introduction to bee biology, telling you of all the things they get up to.
What makes this introduction accessible to a broad audience is that Buchmann goes back to first principles. For starters, what even is a bee, and where did they come from? You might not realise that they evolved from carnivorous predatory wasps and likely did so some 130 million years ago, not long after the evolution of flowering plants. Another basic aspect Buchmann highlights is how myopically focused we are on social bees. The thing is, 80% of all 20,000+ described bee species are solitary. Their biology is the more representative one and Buchmann discusses examples from their lonesome lives throughout this book, many based on his observations working in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and elsewhere. He reminds the reader that “we should not think of honey bees as the pinnacle of bee evolution toward which all bee species strive” (p. 32). Theirs is the exception; a high-risk, high-reward strategy to making a living on this planet.
This approach of introducing basic concepts is applied throughout the book. Thus, we get a brief tour of the gross anatomy of the bee brain, but not before Buchmann explains the basics of the human brain and the structure and workings of neurons. An introduction to sexual selection prefixes the discussion on the many sexual escapades of bees: from scramble competition in cactus bees involving bee brawls (which is exactly what it sounds like), to hilltop lekking in carpenter bees, to alternative reproductive tactics with different male morphs in Centris pallida. Bees can learn to solve problems, improve their performance, and even learn new tricks from other bees, but what is this process called learning, and how widespread is it? Similarly, chapters on sleep, pain, and consciousness all first discuss more broadly what these are and what we know about them in humans and other vertebrate and invertebrate organisms.
Buchmann is a pollination ecologist by training and he cannot help but indulge in a long chapter on pollination. He is on form here and gleefully reminds readers that, next to billboards for pollinators, “flowers are unabashedly plant genitals exposed on a stem for all to see” (p. xiii), while bees act as “surrogate flying flower penises” (p. 78). Though it is traditionally held up as a wholesome form of mutualism, it has elements of an arms race too. As Jeff Ollerton also points out, active pollination, where a pollinator deliberately places pollen on a flower’s stigma, is extremely rare. Rather, the norm is that both pollinators and flowers have their own interests (food and pollination), at heart first and foremost. Sometimes both parties will benefit, but this is not a given. Orchids trick male bees into pseudocopulation with flowers that look and smell just like female bees, dusting them in pollen in the process without offering any nectar. At the other extreme, carpenter bees have become nectar robbers, using their jaws to cut into flowers at their base to access nectar, and thus not providing pollination services. And here is an interesting recent development: studies on the bee microbiome suggest that bees derive some of the microbial life that populates their gut from the flowers on which they forage. In some cases, the proteins contributed by flower microbes might be more nutritious than the pollen grains.
A chapter on sensory biology is, of course, obligatory and Buchmann covers all relevant topics: the trichromatic vision of bees that extends into the ultraviolet, their perception of polarized light used in navigation, their excellent smell, their hearing (which is more a detection of pressure waves at close range), their taste and tactile senses, their to-us-alien detection of electrical charges (and the electrostatic footprints bees leave on flower petals after a visit), and the still contentious topic of magnetoreception. What was new to me is that the two mobile antennae produce a three-dimensional impression of an odour field, and some nifty experiments that involved crossing their antennae resulted in bees persistently walking away from the source of a smell, indicating that they really do smell in stereo.
Though an accessible and enjoyable romp into bee biology, I do have a few minor quibbles. There is a limited number of general black-and-white illustrations and photos, and the reproduction of the latter is so-so as this is a print-on-demand book. And though What a Bee Knows avoids getting too technical, I do feel that in some places Buchmann wanders a bit off-piste from exploring the inner world of bees into more general fascinating tales of bee biology. Nevertheless, the book achieves its mission of instilling a renewed respect and a better understanding of how bees live.
Having now reviewed both Chittka’s The Mind of a Bee and Buchmann’s What a Bee Knows, how do they compare and which one should you read? Both books broadcast the same message loud and clear: bees are darn sophisticated creatures and even individually are far smarter and more capable than you might initially give them credit for. As mentioned, Buchmann goes back to first principles on many topics and wanders into bee biology more generally, while I remarked that Chittka delivers an information-dense book with numerous explanatory illustrations that is very focused in its approach, talking bees, bees, and the occasional other hymenopteran. Consequently, Buchmann does not delve as deeply into many subjects, though he does discuss some experiments in detail (including Chittka’s work on several occasions). My recommendation would be that general readers with little background in biology or entomology pick, or first start with, What a Bee Knows. Biologists, in particular entomologists, might want to skip straight to Chittka’s The Mind of a Bee and get stuck in the wealth of detail there.
What a Bee Knows by Stephen Buchmann is available from our online bookstore.
Here in the UK, we have 11 species of grasshopper and 23 species of cricket (around ten of these being bush-crickets), both subfamilies belonging to the order Orthoptera. Although similar in appearance, the two can be separated by their antennae – grasshoppers have short, stout appendages and bush-crickets have longer, thinner antennae. Bush-crickets also have a larger body size than grasshoppers, growing up to 5cm in length, and females have a distinctive ovipositor used to lay eggs.
Here, we look at a few species of grasshoppers and bush-crickets found in the UK, detailing ways to ID them and where they can be found.
ID Notes: Up to 2.5cm in length. This grasshopper is usually a mottled brown colour, but can vary from brown to grey, orange and purple. It has barring on the sides, and a very hairy underside which is the most straightforward way to identify this species. It is winged and able to fly. Their song consists of short, single chirrups repeated at short intervals.
Distribution: Common and widespread throughout Britain. Common Field Grasshoppers can be seen from May to October on short vegetation in dry, warm days. They can be found in grassy areas including farmland, grassland, heathland, moorland, towns and gardens.
ID Notes: Up to 2.3cm in length. Meadow Grasshoppers are usually green in colour, with some individuals brown or pink-purple coloured (pictured above). The wings are often brown and are long in males, whereas female wings are short and do not reach the end of the abdomen. This species has distinctive black knees and a dark brown stripe running across the flank to the eye. They are similar in appearance to Common Field Grasshoppers, but lack a hairy underside, which can be used to distinguish them from one another. Their song is a burst of around ten chirrups, making a ‘rrr’ sound.
Distribution: Common and widespread throughout Britain. Meadow Grasshoppers can be seen from April to October in damp pastures with long grass. They can also be found in meadows, grassland, heathland and moorland.
Common Green Grasshopper (Omocestus viridulus)
Image by Billy Lindblom via Flickr
ID Notes: Up to 2.3cm in length. As the name suggests, this species is mostly green in colour, but males can also be olive brown. Lines on the shoulders are incurved and white or cream in colour. Common Green Grasshoppers are winged and can fly, but their wings do not exceed the body’s length. They produce a long, loud ticking song which can last for 20 seconds or more and is reminiscent of a fast-paced freewheeling bicycle.
Distribution: Common and widespread throughout Britain, although a little patchier in the lowlands. This species appears early in spring and can be seen from April to September. It can be found in coarse, moist grass in meadows, woodland rides, hillside pastures and farmland.
ID Notes: Up to 2cm in length. This small grasshopper is most easily identified by its antennae – males’ are club-tipped, and females’ have a thickened tip. The body has several colour variations including green, brown, grey and orange. Their song is a repetitive ‘zrr’ ‘zrr’ sound lasting around ten seconds before stopping abruptly.
Distribution: Widely distributed across the UK, but uncommon. Mottled Grasshoppers can be found from April to October in areas of dry, short grass with access to rocks or bare ground, including grasslands, heathland and old quarries.
ID Notes: Up to 1.7cm in length. This species is the UK’s only native, arboreal cricket. It has a slender, lime green body with a yellow-orange or brown strip running along its back. Both sexes are fully winged, with wings reaching the end of the abdomen. Females have a long, upturned ovipositor and males have a pair of shorter, rounded claspers. The males do not produce a song, but instead drum their hind legs on nearby leaves.
Distribution: Common, found in England and Wales. The Oak Bush Cricket is common in the midlands and the south but is absent further north. It can be found in the canopy of mature trees in woods, hedges, garden shrubs and other deciduous trees from June to November.
ID Notes: Up to 2.1cm in length. This species is typically reddish to dark brown, with occasional yellow green through the abdomen and a paler area along the top of the thorax. It has very small forewings and long, hair-like antennae. Females have a large, upcurved ovipositor.
Distribution: Fairly common in central and southern England and Wales, where it can be found in woodland, hedgerows, grassland, farmland, towns and gardens. It can often be spotted in large numbers around bramble patches, where they are basking in the sun.
Roesel’s Bush Cricket (Metrioptera roeselii)
Image by Charlie Jackson via Flickr
ID Notes: A short-winged and usually flightless species, Roesel’s Bush Crickets are typically dark brown or yellow in colour, sometimes tinged green. They have a green face, slightly orange legs and a cream-coloured margin to their thorax, with two or three yellow spots on the side. Their monotonous song is recognisable for its long, mechanical sound.
Distribution: Common, found mostly in the southeast of the UK, but currently expanding its range north and west. This species can be found from June to October in rough grassland, scrub, salt marshes and damp meadows.
ID Notes: This large bush-cricket can easily be distinguished by its size, growing up to 7cm long. It is a vibrant green with an orange-brown stripe running the length of its back. Their wings are typically longer than the abdomen, and females have a long, downward curved ovipositor. This species has a loud, long song which sounds like a high-pitched sewing machine running continuously.
Distribution: Common throughout south England and Wales. It can be found from May to October in scrub, woodland, grassland and heathland, with a preference for light, dry soils.
The first guide to the 261 species of orthopterans of Britain and western Europe ever published. Features stunning, detailed images and information on the distribution and identification criteria. Includes a CD with over 200 orthopteran songs to aid identification.
A photo-based identification guide covering 28 native breeding species of the UK. This guide is part of FSC’s AIDGAP series (Aids to Identification in Difficult Groups of Animals and Plants), providing accessible identification tools for naturalists over the age of sixteen.
If you look under logs, stones or through piles of leaf litter, you may find a Myriapod (a type of arthropod with many legs, related to insects and spiders). Although these misunderstood animals may strike fear in some, these invertebrates play a vital role in maintaining our ecosystems. One of their main roles lies in nutrient cycling, where they feed on organic matter and detritus, breaking materials down into a simpler form and thus releasing nutrition back into the soil. They also play an important role, both as predators and prey, in the ecosystem’s food chain and are often celebrated for their effectiveness as a natural biocontrol agent.
The UK has more than 50 species of centipede. This group are generally carnivorous and have around fifteen pairs of legs, with one pair present on each body segment. They have large forcipules, a pair of pincer-like, modified front legs that are used to inject venom into their prey. There are around 65 species of millipede in the UK, which can be distinguished by their shorter, more clubbed antennae, the absence of forcipules and their tendency to have two pairs of legs on most body segments.
Here, we look at a few species of centipede and millipede that can be found in the UK, detailing ways to ID them and where they can be found.
ID Notes: Also known as the Brown Centipede, Lithobius forficatus is one the largest centipede species in the UK, growing up to 3cm in length. They have long, thin segmented bodies that are a reddish-chestnut brown colour. Each segment has one pair of legs, with 15 pairs in total. They have long antennae and an elongated pair of back legs, giving the illusion of a second pair of antennae at the rear of the body. This species is best identified by thorned projections on the outer edges of the 9th, 11th and 13th segments.
Distribution: Very common and widespread across the UK. This species can be found year-round but is most numerous in spring and autumn. They can be found in a variety of habitats, including woodland, grassland and gardens, and will spend most of the day nesting in soil or sheltered areas under stones, bark or dead wood before emerging at night to hunt for prey.
ID Notes: Similar in colour to the Common Centipede, Lithobius microps is a ground-dwelling species that is usually chestnut brown in colour, although red and orange varieties can also be found. It is much smaller than its common cousin, reaching around 1cm in length, and its 15 pairs of legs are slightly shorter and paler than those of the Common Centipede.
Distribution: Fairly common in the south of Britain. This fast-moving species can be found year-round in gardens and bare soil in rotting wood and under rocks and stones.
ID Notes: Measuring up to 3cm in length, this small, yellow-brown centipede is easily distinguished by the banding on its legs – these alternate pale and dark, are usually brown in colour and are more obvious on the rear pairs. It has a dark band running centrally along its back and much larger jaws when compared to other Lithobius species.
Distribution: Widespread and common in the UK. It can be found year-round living under stones and decaying plant matter during the day, and is commonly found in garden compost heaps.
ID Notes: This millipede grows to around 2.5cm in length, with a width of 4mm. It has a long, flat body with around 20 body segments, each containing between one and two pairs of legs. It is orange-brown in colour and has numerous off-white coloured legs.
Distribution: Widespread and common in the UK. They can be found in almost any environment in which millipedes occur, with frequent sightings in woodland under dead wood and leaf litter.
ID Notes: Up to 3cm in length, this species is one of the largest millipedes found in Britain. It is thick and cylindrical in shape, usually dark brown to black in colour. It has orange coloured stripes running the length of its body on its back, but these can sometimes appear as a series of orange patches.
Distribution: Common and widespread throughout Britain and Ireland. The Striped Millipede can be found year-round in meadows, fields and woodland under leaf litter and logs. It is also known to climb on walls and trees to feed on algae and can be found during the day.
ID Notes: The White-legged Snake Millipede can grow to around 6cm in length. It is tubular-shaped with a shiny black body and contrasting white legs, of which there are around 100. Immature millipedes are brown, often with pale, longitudinal stripes down the back. It has a pointed telson (legless tail segment) at the end of its body.
Distribution: Common and widespread in the UK. This species can be found year-round in most habitats containing millipedes, including woodland and gardens, or areas with rocks or rotting vegetation to provide cover.
A comprehensive atlas of the 55 species of centipede in Britain and Ireland,.tThis guide provides species accounts, distribution maps and detailed colour photographs for easy identification.
Hoverflies of Britain and Ireland is a beautifully illustrated photographic field guide that details the hoverfly species readily available in Great Britain. This revised and updated third edition details 13 additional species and features more than 840 stunning photographs, alongside a host of other improvements to aid reliable identification. As such, this is the most accessible, authoritative and easy-to-use guide available, and a must-read for all entomologists and naturalists alike.
Stuart Ball and Roger Morris have been running the Hoverfly Recording Scheme since 1991 and published the Provisional Atlas of British Hoverflies in 2000. Stuart and Roger both worked as entomologists for the statutory nature conservation agencies, are both active members of the Dipterists Forum, a society that promotes the study of flies, and have subsequently run many hoverfly identification courses prior to their retirement.
We recently had the opportunity to talk to both Stuart and Roger about the book, including how they first became interested in working with hoverflies, where the ‘new species’ that are now detailed in the third edition have come from and more.
Firstly, can you tell us a little about yourselves and your history of working with hoverflies?
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, we worked for the Nature Conservancy Council’s ‘Invertebrate Site Register’ and were active entomologists with a broad interest in flies. Alan Stubbs, our boss at the time, was looking to re-vitalise the Hoverfly Recording Scheme following Philip Entwistle’s retirement and twisted our arms to take it on. The idea was to combine Stuart’s interest in computing and data interpretation, and Roger’s interest in hoverflies, to try to get the scheme back off the ground. At that time there were about two cubic metres of record cards and about 50,000 computerised records. We took the project on, knowing that we would have to computerise those cards, check the existing computerised data and draw in data from numerous other datasets. Little did we realise what it would entail and how it would change our lives! We produced a provisional Atlas in 2000, a second one in 2011 and now have maps available online. Although we are still running the scheme, we do want to see it safely transition to a new generation before we become too long in the tooth!
You are both involved in organising and managing the database of the Hoverfly Recording Scheme. Can you tell us a little bit about it and why the scheme is important?
We split responsibility – Stuart manages the database and deals with data import and final validation processes, whilst Roger deals with day-to-day contact with recorders, including verification of iRecord data and active engagement via the UK Hoverflies Facebook group. The dataset now comprises over 1.8 million records and is the largest dataset for an insect group, except for Lepidoptera and Odonata. The size of the dataset, combined with the unique ecological significance that arises from their various larval feeding strategies, makes hoverflies an excellent subject for many lines of research. The most obvious one has been interest in pollinators, but there are growing avenues of interest in hoverflies because they are sensitive to climate change and also because they are often highly habitat specific. Scheme data is also used in the triennial ‘State of Nature’ reporting.
There are 13 additional species included in this updated edition. Where have these ‘new’ species come from?
When we started work on the new edition there was scope to expand the book, but obviously much less scope to completely re-organise its structure. The species chosen were mainly included because experience has shown them to feature among the species whose photos are posted online and, therefore, people want to know about them. One big change we have made has been to make sure that all Eristalis species are covered and that we have a key to assist in their identification.
The third edition includes a new section on putting data to good use. Why was this important for you?
Our objective from the onset has been to produce a book that is somewhat different from a traditional identification guide. We wanted to make sure that readers thought about both the animal they saw and its larval biology. Moreover, we wanted to encourage high-quality recording. Our background in nature conservation has taught us that the biggest impediment to insect conservation is a lack of reliable data. So, we felt it was necessary to show readers how records might be used and what messages they can convey. The use of models to investigate aspects of wildlife biology and conservation is relatively new, so showing readers that data can be used for a lot more than just ‘dots on maps’ is essential if we are to foster an ongoing high-quality recording community.
Traditionally, hoverfly guides use dichotomous keys as the primary aid for identification. What challenges did you face in producing an identification guide based on photographs and why did you feel that a photographic guide was the right choice for this book?
When we originally developed the book, it was not our intention to replace the existing monographs which include full keys, such as British Hoverflies (Stubbs & Falk 2002), Hoverflies of Northwest Europe (van Veen 2010) and the newer Hoverflies of Britain and North-West Europe (Bot & van de Meutter 2023). Our intention was to produce a companion to these books which illustrated the key features using field photos of live flies and close-up shots of specimens to make the identification process more accessible. The huge growth in records coming from photos posted online meant that we especially wanted to target photographers who wish to put a name to the animals in their pictures. Moreover, had we used traditional keys, the book would have been 400+ pages long and would have been considerably more expensive. Britain’s Hoverflies was quite a brave move for WILDGuides at the time because they had not tackled such a large insect family. The design and the contents had to be marketable, appealing and affordable to people who might not normally buy a book on flies. Coming up with guidance that does not involve keys has been a challenge and we must credit Rob Still for the design inspiration and turning our rough ideas into something workable. Since that first edition, the book has evolved and expanded. It is now a lot bigger, but we have held to our basic belief that it should be complimentary to these other works rather than a replacement.
Syritta pipiens – Thick-legged Hoverfly by Nikk, via flickr.
This updated edition includes revised maps, flight-period charts and population trends for hoverfly species across Britain. Have you observed any changes in behaviour or distribution in response to developing environmental challenges? And do we have a clear idea of how these insects are likely to be impacted in the future?
All insects are responding to a plethora of environmental changes, but we are in a better position to investigate the challenges facing hoverflies because there is such a big dataset and new data arrives in volumes that we could only have dreamt of 30 years ago. Some species are expanding their range, while for others the frequency with which they are recorded is diminishing and/or their range is contracting. Species that were once at the edge of their European range have moved northwards, some quite dramatically. Several new species have arrived, apparently under their own steam, as their European ranges have expanded, but others have been assisted by lax biosecurity. A few species have disappeared from south-east England or are in the process of doing so.
It might be assumed that the twin evils of habitat loss and agricultural intensification (including pesticides) are primarily responsible for these changes; however, we think that climate change is having a far more profound impact than is currently accepted. Flies have very thin-skinned larvae and are highly susceptible to changes in humidity, so increases in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves and droughts will have a big impact on them. This sensitivity makes them important indicators – they are arguably climate change canaries that help to explain why so much of Britain’s precious biodiversity is disappearing. Flies are at the bottom of the food chain, so if you lose flies there will be fewer insectivorous birds and mammals, let alone predacious invertebrates such as wasps and spiders.
Hoverflies of Britain and Ireland is published by WILDGuides and is available to pre-order from our online bookstore.
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera, meaning ‘sheath-winged’. They get their name from the adaptation of their front wings which have formed tough protective cases called elytra. This gives them an armour-like appearance while protecting the delicate wings underneath.
As one of the most diverse groups across the world, there are over 400,000 species – more than 4,000 of these can be found in the UK. In this post we will look at some of Britain’s beetles, detailing their key features and where to find them.
Distribution: Widespread across the UK, but scarce in number. Most common in southern England.
Identification: This large beetle is instantly recognisable by its iridescent emerald green carapace. Up to 2cm long, this broad beetle will often have white streaks across its wing case, which can occasionally appear purple or bronze in colour. The underside is covered in fine, pale hairs and there is an obvious ‘V’ shape on its back where the wing cases meet.
Where to find them: Grassland, woodland edges, scrub and farmland. Rose Chafers can also be found in towns and gardens, where they are considered a pest. You can find them between May and October when they can be spotted in sunny weather.
Distribution: Widely distributed across the UK, more common in the south of England.
Identification: The UK’s largest scarab beetle, the Cock Chafer can grow up to 4cm in length. It has rusty brown wing cases with a black body and brown legs. Its underside is covered in fine, pale hairs and it has a pointed tail. It has distinctively large, fan-like antennae that can be used to distinguish the sex – males have seven feathers and females have six.
Where to find them: Meadows, farmland, grassland, woodland, heath and moorland, and gardens from April to July. These insects are mostly seen after sunset, where they can be found near streetlights and bright windows.
Conservation status: A globally threatened species, the Stag Beetle is listed as a priority species in Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Distribution: Nationally scarce. This species is mainly found in south-east England. It is most abundant in the Thames Valley and Hampshire and is locally common in some areas of the south-west.
Identification: A spectacular insect, the Stag Beetle is recognised for its antler-like mandibles. Males can grow up to 8cm, while the females grow to 5cm and have smaller mandibles. Both have a shiny black head, thorax and legs with chestnut-coloured wing cases.
Where to find them: They can be found from mid-May to late July in woodland, hedgerows, parks and gardens. Although usually found on the ground, males can be seen in flight during sunset on hot summer evenings.
Identification: Smaller than their threatened cousins, the Lesser Stag Beetle grows up to 3cm in length and can be distinguished by smaller mandibles and knobbed antennae. Although similar in shape and colour, this species has a broad head and matt black wing cases.
Where to find them: Hedgerows, woods, farmland, grassland, towns and gardens from May to September. They can often be found basking in the sun on tree trunks and can be seen flying near bright lights at night.
Distribution: Widespread in the UK, particularly in south-west England. Distribution is patchier in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Identification: A small, shiny beetle growing up to 1cm in length, the Rosemary Beetle is a striking metallic green with orange and purple stripes. The head and thorax are mostly green with some red markings, and the legs are a brown-red.
Where to find them: Rosemary Beetles are found year-round but are commonly spotted between April and September. The species is closely associated with Lavender, Thyme and Rosemary.
Distribution: Widespread across the UK, less common in Scotland.
Identification: A narrow-bodied longhorn beetle, this species has a long, black body with yellow horizontal stripes. The Wasp Beetle has short brown antennae and brown legs.
Where to find them: Wasp Beetles can be found in farmland, woodland, hedgerows, parks and gardens between April and July.
Identification: Growing up to 1cm in length, the Red Soldier Beetle is small and narrow. It has a rectangular body that is a vibrant orange red with black tips to the wing cases. Their orange legs are tipped with black feet and they have long antennae.
Where to find them: This species can be found from June to August, usually on open-structured flowers such as daisies and Cow Parsley, in grasslands, hedgerows, woodland, parks and gardens.
Identification: A mid-sized beetle growing up to 2cm in length, the Red-headed Cardinal Beetle has a vibrant orange-red head and wing case. Its legs and antennae are black, the latter long and toothed.
Where to find them: Adults can be found in woodland, hedgerows, farmland, parks and gardens from May to July.
Identification: The Devil’s Coach Horse, easily recognised by its scorpion-like stance when threatened, is a medium-sized black beetle growing up to 3cm in length. It has large, powerful jaws and a long, thick abdomen. The body is covered in fine black hairs and the wing cases are very short.
Where to find them: Devil’s Coach Horse Beetles can be found from April to October in hedgerows, grassland, farmland and gardens. They require damp living conditions and are often found under stones and in compost heaps.
Identification: Growing up to 3cm in length, the Violet Ground Beetle has a distinctive metallic violet colouring running along the edge of a black thorax and smooth wing cases.
Where to find them: Violet Ground Beetles can be found from March to October in woodland, grassland, moorland and urban areas. They are frequently found under logs and stones.
There are around 270 bee species in the UK, and over 90% of these are solitary – they do not nest in colonies, do not produce honey and don’t have a queen. Instead, these bees lead solitary lives, only coming together to mate. The group can be divided into ground-nesting species, found on lawns, paths and loose soil, or aerial nesters which utilise hollow plant stems, dead wood and man-made bee hotels to build a nest for larval bees.
Here we look at a small selection of these important pollinators found in the UK, outlining ways in which they can be identified and where they can be found.
Mason Bees
Mason bees is the name used to refer to bees of the genus Osmia.There are around 500 different species of mason bee across the world, and around 20 of these can be found in the UK. This group gets their name from their use of mud or clay in nest building, which takes place in naturally occurring gaps or cracks, and other small, dark cavities. Some species of mason bee will also use hollow stems or bore holes made by wood-boring insects.
Distribution: Widespread and common throughout England and Wales. Rarer in Scotland. These bees can be found from early spring in grassland, farmland, towns and gardens. Red Mason Bees are common in built environments and are often seen nesting in the crumbling mortar of old walls. This species is also a common inhabitant of bee hotels.
Identification: These fluffy bees grow up to 1.1cm long and are typically identified by dense, gingery hair. On both males and females, the head and thorax are brown with an orange abdomen. Males are typically smaller than their female counterparts and have a distinctive white tuft of hair on the head. Female Red Mason Bees have dense orange hairs on the abdomen, with pollen collecting hairs on the underside. This species also has a pair of short, distinct horns on the head.
Distribution: Nationally rare in the UK. Red-tailed Mason Bees can be found from March to July in the south and east of England and south Wales. This species occurs exclusively on calcareous grassland over chalk or limestone, in quarries, grassland and brownfield sites.
Identification: This species has dense, black hair on the head and thorax. Bright orange-red hair is present on the abdomen and the lower legs, forming stripes of orange and brown on the upper abdomen. Males are slimmer and less vibrant than females, and can have pale, duller brown hairs on their head, thorax and abdomen.
Mining Bees
Sometimes referred to as digger bees, this group are named after their burrowing behaviours in which they create their nests. There are roughly 65 species in the Andrena genus, making mining bees the largest bee genus in Britain.
Tawny MiningBee (Andrena fulva)
A female Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva) by Lukas Large, via flickr.
Distribution: Widespread and common in England and Wales. Populations are growing in Scotland. This species can be found in farmland, heathland, parks, towns and gardens from March to June.
Identification: Similar in size to a honeybee, with dense orange hair and a black face. Females tend to be larger and have a thick, orange coat covering the upper thorax and abdomen. The underside is covered with black hair, along with the head and legs. Males are trickier to identify but are generally smaller and slimmer. They have long mandibles and are browner in colour, but can be distinguished by white tufts of facial hair on the head.
Distribution: Common and widespread across Britain and Ireland. Can be found nesting in gardens, woodlands, riverbanks and urban environments from March to July.
Identification: A distinctive bee growing up to 15mm in length. Females have two, broad grey bands at the top and bottom of the thorax. The abdomen is sparsely haired, revealing a glossy black exoskeleton and the legs are covered with dense black hair. They also have a patch of ashy grey hair on their faces. Males have similar markings but are generally smaller in size. The bands are less distinct, and they have a spread of grey hair across their thorax.
Leafcutter Bees
Named for their nesting habits, these bees are known to cut circular leaf pieces to use as building material for their nests. Leafcutter bees lay their eggs in natural tree cavitieswhere they use up to 40 pieces of harvested leaves and petals to create a chamber for safe incubation. There are seven different species of leafcutter bee in the UK – they can be found nesting in beetle holes, plant stems, deadwood, cliffs or old walls.
Patchwork Leafcutter Bee (Megachilecentuncularis)
Megachile centuncularis by Gilles San Martin, via flickr.
Distribution: Widespread and common throughout the UK, although less common in the north. Patchwork Leafcutter Bees can be found in a range of habitats from April to August, including grassland, farmland, woodland, towns and gardens. This species is strongly associated with willowherbs, honeysuckle and roses.
Identification: Easily identified by the vibrant yellow-orange pollen brush under the abdomen, extending right to the tip. This species is a similar size to honeybees, growing up to 13mm. The female has defined white bands across the abdomen. Males are more challenging to identify – similar in appearance to a dark honeybee, with the characteristic vibrant underside and tan coloured hair around their thorax.
Megachile willughbiella female by Line Sabroe, via flickr.
Distribution: Common and widespread across Britain. Frequently observed in brownfield sites from June to August. This species is also readily found in bee hotels.
Identification: Up to 18mm in size, Willughby’s Leafcutter Bees are similar in appearance to Patchwork Leafcutter Bees. They appear similar to dark honeybees, with little hair. The species varies in shades of black, with orange and gold throughout the coat and an orange pollen brush. Males can be distinguished by oversized front basitarsi, giving the appearance of white, wooly mittens.
***** A wonderful graphical introduction to the inner workings of an ant colony
This one grabbed my attention as soon as it was announced. Not a comic or graphic novel, but an A4-format book about ant colonies that is chock-a-block with infographics? Yes, please! Showcasing the best of what science illustration can be and combining it with a genuine outsider’s interest in entomology, The Ant Collective makes for a wonderful graphical introduction that will appeal to a very broad audience of all ages.
This book was originally published in German in 2022 as Das Ameisenkollektiv by Kosmos Verlag. It was quickly snapped up for translation into French and Spanish before Princeton University Press published it in English in 2024, courtesy of translator Alexandra Bird. Armin Schieb is a freelance science illustrator based in Hamburg, Germany, and this book is derived from his master’s thesis in Informative Illustration at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. His portfolio shows infographics, 3D models, and cover illustrations for a range of clients, from magazines to newspapers to publishers, but this book represents his first published work to date.
Based on direct observations, sketches, and photos of red wood ants (Formica rufa), Schieb has designed 61 highly detailed computer-generated illustrations showing ants from a bug’s eye perspective that entomologists can only dream of. The eight chapters each contain a mixture of full-page spreads with naturalistic 3D renderings of landscapes full of ants, and pages with numerous smaller infographics that explain how colonies function. Annotations are scattered throughout to provide context to what you are looking at. Neatly, many of the full-page spreads continue overleaf, forming eight-page tableaux. One can only imagine what they would have looked like if the publisher had included them as gatefolds!
Next to obligatory drawings introducing ant anatomy, the focus of this book is on colony-level behaviour, with chapters depicting nuptial flights, nest establishment and construction, seasonal cycles of nest maintenance, foraging, trail formation, food acquisition and defence, reproduction, nest defence, and the formation of new colonies. The clever use of cutaway illustrations reveals processes that normally play out unseen underground.
There are some memorable scenes in here showing e.g. green woodpeckers and boars raiding ant nests. The woodpecker illustration stands out in particular. Red wood ants defend themselves by spraying formic acid and are normally inedible. The birds, though, have turned the tables on the ants twice over, picking them up in their beak and rubbing them on their feathers where the ants discharge the contents of their poison glands. As an added bonus, the formic acid repels feather parasites. This whole story is illustrated by overlaying several semitransparent motion frames of a woodpecker twisting its head and is glorious to behold. Elsewhere, Schieb uses motion blur to good effect to highlight the action-packed nature of spiders and antlions catching hapless ants.
Needless to say, this book is full of fascinating titbits of information. Schieb explains the phenomenon of age polyethism that I first encountered in Ant Architecture. Young ants tend to stay inside or close to the nest, while older ants venture further out to do the dangerous job of foraging (though Ant Encounters for some criticism of this idea). Schieb (perhaps unwittingly) offers an excellent illustration of colony behaviour arising through interaction networks when he shows how foraging trails wax and wane as a function of behavioural interactions between ants. There is similarly a deft explanation of the anatomical details of the eyes that allow them to see both polarized and unpolarized light: straight or spiralling stacks of light-sensitive tubules. It is one of those concepts where a picture says more than a thousand words. The only criticism I have of this particular section is that I would have opened it with the otherwise excellent illustration explaining sky polarization. Additionally, I would have added an infographic that explains what polarized light actually is, as it is a surprisingly tricky phenomenon to explain. Michael Land’s book Eyes to See contains a good picture, whereas Schieb basically takes it as a given that readers will understand what he means when writing that “almost all photons in a polarized light ray vibrate in the same plane” (p. 64).
The promotional blurb for the book mentions it draws on the latest science though I was left somewhat confused when I finished it. Schieb is obviously not an entomologist but a graphic artist. There is no mention of the project having benefited from one or several entomologists acting as consultants to give the contents the once-over for scientific accuracy. There is no acknowledgements section where Schieb credits scientists for advice and input. There is not even a list of references or recommended reading included. Or is there? Since I do not have access to the German original I had to resort to some online sleuthing and found a preview on Amazon.de that includes the reference list on p. 126. This reveals that, yes, he has consulted books and scientific papers in both English and German, including that evergreen The Ants, an older edition of Insect Physiology and Biochemistry, and both specialist and general German books on forest insects. So, Schieb did his homework, Kosmos referenced it, but for some bizarre reason, Princeton simply omitted it, as the page between 125 and 127 is… blank! Did I just happen to receive a dud to review? Checking eight other copies at our warehouse confirmed that, no, this is a feature, not a bug. Hopefully, if there are future print runs, this is a detail that can be rectified, as it could easily leave readers with the wrong impression.
Over the years, I have reviewed some seriously impressive photographic books on ants, covering amongst others army ants, desert ants, and myrmecophiles. Despite being a slimmer volume written for a general audience, The Ant Collective rubs shoulders with the greats where visual content is concerned. This is a feast for the eyes that will lure newcomers into entomology but should also please seasoned myrmecologists.
A final thing to note is that this book tells the biology of a *single* species. Wood ants are well-studied as far as ants go, but as the subtitle indicates, this is a look inside the world of *a* ant colony. It would be a mistake to come away from this book thinking that this is how colonies of all ant species function. The world of ants is one of bewildering diversity, though themes and unifying principles are starting to emerge.
This beautifully illustrated book provides a comprehensive gardener’s guide to sustainable beekeeping. It reveals the pleasures and benefits of keeping bees in gardens of all sizes in both rural and urban areas, explains the practicalities of this widely enjoyed hobby and lists the top performing plants that will help your colony thrive. Beekeeping for Gardeners also discusses the hobby of beekeeping within the wider environment and questions how it can meet the needs of all species of pollinators, as well as it’s potential contribution to the local ecology.
Richard Rickitt is an award-winning author as well as co-editor of the UK’s best-selling beekeeping magazine BeeCraft. He has been an avid beekeeper for over 20 years, maintaining numerous hives for both commercial and private clients as well as his own, looks after the bees at the National Arboretum, and teaches beekeeping courses across the UK as well as abroad.
Richard recently took the time out of his busy schedule to talk to about Beekeeping for Gardeners, including what inspired him to write a book aimed at gardeners, what the future of Honey Bees in Britain looks like and more.
Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what prompted you to write a beekeeping book aimed specifically at gardeners?
I grew up on a Somerset smallholding, so my heart is in the countryside. I always loved wildlife and my bedroom was like a miniature Natural History Museum filled with bird’s nests, animal skulls and a menagerie of frogs, newts, caterpillars and anything else I could catch and keep. One day I peeked through a garden hedge to spy on an old beekeeper at work. The white hives, sparkling clouds of bees and puffing smoker seemed mysterious and magical. I suspect that I have a very romanticised image of the scene in my mind, although even now when tending my bees I am often struck by what a bucolic activity it can be. Later, I learned beekeeping at my secondary school which had an excellent rural studies department – I’m not sure if such things exist anymore, which is a terrible shame. I went on to work in film and television special effects, but after moving from London to Wiltshire about 18 years ago, I took up beekeeping again. I became increasingly involved in the beekeeping community, eventually becoming co-editor of BeeCraft, the UK’s bestselling beekeeping magazine, which is now in its 105th year.
I wrote a book aimed at gardeners because many of the people attending my beekeeping courses are already gardeners and want to know more about the bees that they see visiting their flowers. By starting out as gardeners, new beekeepers are already doing one of the most important things that anyone can do for bees; providing them with the resources and habitats that they need. But sometimes a little extra knowledge and small changes in the way you garden can make a huge difference to the sustainability of your local bee populations. For example, some species of solitary bee depend on a single, specific variety of flower.
Keeping honey bees dovetails very nicely with gardening; it’s a seasonal activity done mostly in good weather in spring and summer. Time spent in the garden can be time spent tending both plants and bees, enjoying watching them develop and interact through the year. Gardeners enjoy choosing what plants best work in their garden and if you are a beekeeper there can be the added pleasure of planting specifically for bees and seeing them make use of what you have provided. There are practical benefits too; fruit and vegetable crops will be better pollinated, resulting in more and higher-quality produce. And, of course, there can be the reward of a crop of delicious honey and even wax with which to make candles or cosmetics. Like gardening, beekeeping is a lovely hobby to share as a couple or family – each person often finding their own areas of interest, and sharing the work, discoveries and pleasures.
So, my book is for anyone who loves gardens and is interested in learning about and helping bees of all kinds. They might want to create a beautiful garden with the most appropriate plants, habitat and nesting opportunities for wild bees, or take things further and keep a hive or two of honey bees.
I really liked how the book provided not only a comprehensive guide to beekeeping on a small scale but is also an exceptional resource of information on growing flowering plants and creating habitats for bumblebees, solitary bees and insects of all kinds. Do you think traditional beekeeping advice has tended to be very focused on the Honey Bee itself with less of an emphasis on providing the habitat it requires to thrive?
Beekeepers have always very carefully noted which plants flower near their bees,aswell as the quality and quantity of honey that their bees produce as a result. However, the presence of such resources has generally been taken for granted;the beekeeper only having to look after the bees while it was assumed that nature would provide the rest. Increasingly, because of habitat loss, climate change and pollution, the necessary resources aren’talways there. Today’s beekeepers therefore have to think not only about caring for their bees, but also about caring for the environment in which their bees live. That includes growing more of the right plants but also considering whether their bees might have a negative impact on the local environment and the other species it supports.Most beekeepers begin their hobby for environmental reasons and try have a positive impact.
How do you think beekeeping fits within the broader context of conservation, given that the honey bee isconsidered by some as not native to Britain and may spread diseases to or compete with other important wild pollinators?
This is a great question involvingseveral complex issues,soI’m afraid it requires quite a long reply.
The first point is the erroneous but increasingly commonly held belief that the honey beeis not a UK native species. The oldest fossil of a true honey bee(Apis species) comes from Germany and is about 25 million years old.The distribution of such bees, along with all species of plant and animal, will have fluctuated drastically over the millennia in response to changes in geography,environment and climate. However,when the ice retreated at the end of the last ice age, some 10,000 years ago, what is now called Britain was still connected to the European continent. This allowed the spread northwards of animals and plants. Honey bees naturally live in tree cavities and undoubtedly would have spread into Britain as trees began to grow here.Then, when sea levels rose about 6000 years ago, Britain became an island. This is the cutoff point at which species alreadyestablished and subsequently isolatedhere are generally consideredto be native.That would certainly have included honey bees as well as the hundreds of other species of bumblebee and solitary bee that we now consider to belong here. So, I think there is no doubt that honey beesarein fact native. Indeed, there is archaeologicalevidence of the presence of honey bees in Britian dating backthousands of years. For example, the remains of venison cooked with honey were found in Bronze Age artifacts recently unearthed in Peterborough. There is no such archaeological evidence for the presence of any species of solitary bee or bumblebee in Britain at that time, although I wouldn’tquestion that most of those are also native. For more about the evidence of the honey bee as a native species, I would recommend reading anacademic paper by Norman Careck of Sussex University.
Many of the bumblebeeand solitary bee speciesfound in Britain are also foundon the continent and are considered native in both places. However, thehoney bee, also naturally present on both sides of the channel, is currently claimed by a few people to be non-native in Britian.This contradictoryclaim only seems to have come about in the last decade or so and isperhaps partlybecause of ahistory of commercial importation of honey bees from the European mainland into Britian.Such imports have been made for three reasons; firstly, because in the early twentieth century many of our wild and managed honey bee colonies died as a result of a disease then known as the Isle of Wight disease – so much so that the production of pollinated farm crops was thought to be threatened; secondly, it was thought that the slightly different genetic traits of honey bees from elsewhere could be used to produce more disease-resistant and productive honey bees in the UK; and thirdly, because commercial beekeepers whose bees pollinate crops in spring often require new queens to replace those that have died overwinter – and the British climate makes it impossible to raise new queens here until later in the season.The result has been an influx of honey bee queens from Europe. These bees are the same species as has existed here for thousands of years (Apis mellifera)but they have evolved into regional subspecies because of the slightly differing environmental conditions where they live.Honey bees living in Italy will experience a very different climate and flowering plants to those living in Scotland, for example. The result is that many of our honey beesnow have a mixture of genes hailing from different places.
Some hobby beekeepers today are against the importation of honey bees and increasingly favour what are known as local bees.These are bees raised from colonies that survive and thrive in a relatively small geographical area, without the addition of new genetic characteristics from bees imported from abroad or elsewhere within the UK – they are ecotypes.The actual genetic makeup might be a mixture of all sorts, depending on what is already in an area, but studies have shown that, over time, the native genetic element tends to dominate.There are some areas of the UK where the genetics of local honey bee populations are very highly native.However, as climate change worsens, adaptability will be key to the survival of all species of animal and plant; it might be that genetic traits from imported honey bees are what eventually give our honey bees the ability to survive in unstable climatic conditions.In my book, I urge beginner beekeepers to buy new bees and queens from a local beekeeper who has kept the same bees in the same place for decades, these honey bees will probably be best suited to your area.
Now for the second part of the question, which is also complicated but I will try to keep things brief.There are several diseases that appear to be shared in one form or another by various types of bee. Research into these diseases, their effects and transmissibility, is at the early stages with very few definitive conclusions at the moment.One disease, called nosema, is a kind of fungus that affects the gut of a bee. This is found in both honey bees and bumblebees. It is thought that this first evolved in butterflies, and has since been passed on to bees, which can be spread from one species to anotherperhaps by sharing the same flower resources.One of the biggest threats to honey bees is the presence of varroa, a tiny parasitic mite that can spread various pathogens when feeding from the bodies of developing honey bee pupae. It’s not yet clear which of these pathogens can spread to other species of bee which are not in themselves hosts to varroa.
There are a lot of uncertainties, and it is by no means clear that honey bees are a significant disease danger to other species of bee, or the reverse. However, it highlights the importance of beekeepers fully understanding the biology and lifecycle of honey bees, andtheir diseases and predators. This will enable them to keep healthy bees that are better able bothto resist diseases and minimise the chances of spreading them to other species. Reading my book is a good way to begin understanding how to keep healthy honey bees, and indeed if beekeeping is really for you. After that, I strongly suggest joining your local beekeeping association and signing up for a training course.
Finally, and referring to the first part of your question, you asked about where beekeeping fits into conservation more broadly. The fact is that because beekeepers generally do a good job of looking after them, honey bees are not currently under threat – despite being subject to many of the same pressures as solitary bees and bumblebees. There was a great deal of worry some years ago when huge numbers of honey bees died for largely unknown reasons, but those problems are now generally under control. We shouldn’t be complacent, however; there are still a great many threats to honey bees and the climate crisis poses lots of potential problems.
I consider honey bees to be the ‘gateway bee’. Many people who have never had a very close relationship to wildlife or the natural world are attracted to beekeeping as a fascinating and rewarding hobby – sometimes at first they don’t even understand the difference between honey bees and other bees. Once they are acquainted with honey bees, such people often want to learn more about the other species of bee, ultimately taking part in conservation measures and becoming bee ambassadors, spreading the word about the importance and fragility of bee populations generally and appreciating the importance of plant life and biodiversity in general.
Beekeeping within the UK appears to be a thriving pastime and, throughout the Covid pandemic in particular, it seems that many were inspired to take it up as a hobby. Could we reach a situation where we have too many beekeepers?
It’s thought that in the UK there are about a quarter of the number of honey bee colonies there were in the 1950’s, and far fewer than might have been present naturally a few thousand years ago – a natural density of about one colony per square kilometre is estimated by renowned bee scientist, Professor Tom Seeley. But although we may have fewer honey bees now, we also have a hugely degraded environment that is much less capable of supporting bees of all kinds.
There was a huge drop in the number of beekeepers and bee colonies in the mid-1990s, with membership of the British Beekeeper’s Association (BBKA) dropping to just 7000. When the media began to highlight the problems being experienced by honey bees, particularly due to so-called colony collapse disorder, the number of beekeepers began to rise again. As you say, numbers increased somewhat during the pandemic, too. Today there are about 27,000 members of the BBKA. That number seems to be levelling off and I wouldn’t be surprised if it has reached a peak. There are new beekeepers every year, of course, but people also drop out of the hobby at about the same rate as they join.
I think it is unlikely therefore that we will have too many beekeepers overall, but I do think that the distribution of beekeepers and their bees is a matter of possible concern. Beekeeping has become popular in large cities, and although suburban areas with their dense patterns of small gardens containing a wide variety of plants – not to mention parks, allotments and railway embankments – can provide plenty of bee habitat, city centres are often extremely poor places for supporting bees and other pollinators. The trend for putting beehives on top of city centre office buildings is highly questionable when there are so few flowering plants nearby. There are also a few rural areas with particularly fragile populations of rare bee species where it might be unwise to keep honey bees. A very high density of honey bees in any area could increase the chances of disease transmission – as discussed in the previous question. These are all issues discussed in my book.
Overall, I believe that thoughtful beekeeping is environmentally beneficial. Although you can place bee hotels in your garden and plant gardens to attract bees, there is nothing quite like learning about and witnessing the extraordinary lifecycle of a honey bee colony for opening people’s eyes, minds and hearts to the breathtakingly complex and beautiful natural history of bees and pollinators in general.
With constant monitoring in place for the arrival of pests such as Tropilaelaps mites as well as the current spread of the Yellow Legged Hornet (commonly referred to as the Asian Hornet), are you broadly optimistic for the future of Honey Bees in Britain?
It seems likely that the Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) might finally have a toehold in the UK and we could have a small breeding population. Until now, APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency) and the National Bee Unit have done a great job tracing nests and destroying them, but if the population increases exponentially, it will be impossible to control – as has been the case in France and other places.
It is hard to say exactly how the arrival of the Asian Hornet will affect British beekeeping although, as with the arrival of Varroa Mites in the 1990s, I suspect there will be a steep decline in the number of people keeping bees. Chris Packham recently said that having Asian hornets might only mean the loss of a few teaspoonfuls of honey, but I strongly disagree with this sentiment. One nest of Asian hornets can consume 11.5 kg of insects in a season – that’s hundreds of thousands of insects. Perhaps people don’t mind if those insects are honey bees, but when the honey bees run out, other bees, wasps, flies, butterflies and so-on could become the target prey. Imagine how that might affect birds and other animals that rely on those insects – not to mention the crops that they pollinate. And bear in mind that one Asian hornet nest can produce 300 queens resulting in hundreds of new nests the following year.
Tropelaelaps, and particularly Small Hive Beetle, are two other potentially very problematic invasive pests. They haven’t been found here yet and there are import controls and a system of sentinel apiaries to try to prevent or detect their arrival. There are contingency plans to prevent their spread should they arrive but there are a lot of unknown factors. Climate change makes the possible arrival and spread of these exotic species more concerning.
I’m broadly optimistic about the future of beekeeping in the UK but there will be challenges and changes.
Finally, although I’m sure your job as editor of BeeCraft magazine, as well as your public speaking engagements must keep you incredibly busy (alongside the actual beekeeping of course!), we’d love to know if you have plans for further books?
I have lots of ideas for other bee-related books, some practical and some a bit more esoteric. Whether I’ll ever find time to write them, and in particular take the photographs for them, is another matter. At the moment,I’mglad to have finished this book and I am enjoying watching bees and visiting gardens without feeling the need to make notes and take photos – although my camera is never very far away…
***** A tremendously enjoyable biography
Grasshoppers of Britain and Western Europe
Orthoptera and Dermaptera
The promotional blurb for the book mentions it draws on the latest science though I was left somewhat confused when I finished it. Schieb is obviously not an entomologist but a graphic artist. There is no mention of the project having benefited from one or several entomologists acting as consultants to give the contents the once-over for scientific accuracy. There is no acknowledgements section where Schieb credits scientists for advice and input. There is not even a list of references or recommended reading included. Or is there? Since I do not have access to the German original I had to resort to some online sleuthing and found a preview on Amazon.de that includes the reference list on p. 126. This reveals that, yes, he has consulted books and scientific papers in both English and German, including that evergreen The Ants, an older edition of Insect Physiology and Biochemistry, and both specialist and general German books on forest insects. So, Schieb did his homework, Kosmos referenced it, but for some bizarre reason, Princeton simply omitted it, as the page between 125 and 127 is… blank! Did I just happen to receive a dud to review? Checking eight other copies at our warehouse confirmed that, no, this is a feature, not a bug. Hopefully, if there are future print runs, this is a detail that can be rectified, as it could easily leave readers with the wrong impression.
Richard Rickitt is an award-winning author as well as co-editor of the UK’s best-selling beekeeping magazine 
