Bees of Monmouthshire Recording Project

Over 150 different species of bees have been recorded in Monmouthshire! One of these is the Honey bee (Apis mellifera), and a further 19 species are Bumblebees (Genus: Bombus) – all of the other 130 or so species are solitary bees that come in many different shapes and sizes.

They rely on many features of our natural environment for their survival. Flowers are essential for providing nutrition for both adult bees and their developing offspring. Adult bees spend most of their time foraging on flowers, some foraging upon a range of different plants and other bee species foraging upon only a single species.

Female Common furrow bee (Lasioglossum calceatum) on Apple blossom

Male Leafcutter bee (Megachile sp) emerging from its nest

Nesting sites are equally important and are surprisingly varied. Most bees nest underground, digging burrows up to one meter in the soil to lay their eggs, while others use holes in dead wood, hollow plant stems, abandoned rodent nests and even empty snail shells.

A significant number of UK bees (around 30%) do not make nests, instead choosing to lay their eggs in the nest of others, much like the Cuckoo.

This diversity of life-histories allows bees to inhabit many places, from atop The Sugar Loaf (Mynydd Pen-y-fâl) to our own back gardens. Bees also range in size from almost 3cm to a tiny 3mm, which explains in part why some species are often overlooked.

“Monmouthshire VC35, despite its wealth of different habitats, from upland moors, flower meadows, sandy riverbanks to the Gwent Levels, is under-recorded in comparison with other parts of south Wales.”

Roger Ruston

Recording efforts for different bee species are not equal either, with the charismatic and conspicuous bumblebees (Bombus spp) forming the majority of records. For example, the Shrill Carder Bee (Bombus sylvarum), a nationally scarce bumblebee, has over 500 county records, the second most of any county in the UK! Solitary bees on the other hand, only account for around 20% of the county records, despite comprising over 85% of the species diversity!

“This year, and hopefully during 2025, we are making efforts to fill in some of the many gaps in our knowledge of Monmouthshire bees. — For example, we have already discovered that the Brown-banded carder (Bombus humilis) and Longhorn bees (Eucera longicornis) are much more widespread in North Monmouthshire than previously recognised.”

Roger Ruston

In addition, the first ever record for Monmouthshire of the Broad-margined mining bee (Andrena synadelpha) was made last year, along with the second ever record of the Red bartsia bee (Melitta tricincta). Both these species have fewer than 10 records between them for the entirety of Wales, highlighting just how much there is to discover about bee diversity.

Our new work is to record all of the bee species that are now present, and help people who live here to become more aware and knowledgeable about these wonderful and vital insects. If you have any questions about this work, please feel free to contact me via email ciaranclark@beesfordevelopment.org.

Thank you to Bee Friendly Monmouthshire, firstly for their efforts over the last ten years and for their financial support without which this new work would not have been possible. This project has been supported by the Sustainable Development Fund, a Welsh Government initiative in the Wye Valley National Landscape (NL).