I saw a very large black bee with blue wings at the museum today. Annoyingly it flew off just before I could get my phone out to video it, but from looking around the internet I am thinking it was a Violet Carpenter Bee - Xylocopa violacea.
I'm not finding a lot of info on the possible distribution of this and there only seem to be 7 sqaures on the NBN atlas.
If there are any bee people on here, I'd appreciate your thoughts.
(to make up for the lack of moths, there was a Streamer on the window of our cafe which is new for the year for me!)
Dave Morris
Chalfont St Giles
A Blog for moth recorders in Bucks, Berks and Oxon
According to Bees of the British Isles 2018 it has been seen in many English counties (Bucks wasn't mentioned) with W Yorks being the furthest North. It is distributed through Europe and Asia, but is not considered to ever have been established in UK
ReplyDeleteWhilst it probably could cross the channel, most UK records are considered to be accidental introductions within in various products and packaging cases.
Thanks Martin!
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