The Cuckoo Bee - By Carl Clee
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Whilst surveying the relict dunes on the North Wirral Coast Park at the Gun Site Leasowe for aculeate Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants) during June 1994, I came across two bees on a south facing dune slope investigating the burrows of the leaf cutter bee Megachile Maritima. Further examination of the bees revealed them to be the Nationally Scarce Cuckoo Bees - Coelioxys mandibularis Nylander.
F. Birch, a member of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society, found the first British record of this species, re[presented by a single speciment running up and down a wooden post at Wallasey sandhills on a day in July 1900. Subsequently, Gardiner (1901) found an overlooked specimen in his collection that pre-dated this capture and was collected from the same Wallasey location on 5th July 1891.
Unfortunately little remains of this original habitat and yet, despite intense visitor pressure, often extreme habitat modification and degradation, it is pleasing to record that Coelioxys mandibularis can still be found over 100 years later, close to the locations where they were first recorded in Britain.
Carl Clee - is the Cheshire recorder for aculeate Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants) and since 1994 has been Honorary Curator at World Museum Liverpool.