Ivy Bee
Fast Facts
Latin name: Colletes hederae
Notable feature: Furry, bright yellow-orange hair on the thorax and yellow with black bands on the abdomen.
Conservation Status: Least Concern
Where in the UK: Widespread in southern England with an increasing number of records spreading into the Midlands and west into Wales.
Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae) on Ivy © Sam Merriman-Johnson, Buglife Shutterbug
The Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae) is the latest solitary bee to appear in the year. Males typically emerge from their nests first in late August, with females following a few weeks later. They are also known as the Ivy Plasterer Bee and the Ivy Mining Bee.
The Ivy Bee was first recorded in the UK in Dorset in 2001, and can now be found across southern England and Wales. Although a non-native species, the Ivy Bee is not thought to have a negative impact on native pollinators or other wildlifefilling a rather specific niche in the Hymenoptera world by emerging so late in the year to forage when many other bee species have already completed their lifecycle.
Although similar in size and appearance to honeybees, the Ivy Bee has a distinctive yellowy-orange tuft on top of their heads. This along with the preference for Ivy plants and their late flying period can help identify them.
- Size: 1-1.3cm
- Life span: Annual.
- Diet: Mainly forage pollen from Ivy plants.
- Reproduction: They prefer to nest in light, sandy soils on south facing banks and cliffs with access to nearby Ivy. While they are solitary bees, Ivy Bees do tend to aggregate in the same nesting sites leading to lots of individual nests in close proximity to one another. They use their own saliva to smooth over and firm up the walls of their nests. The males can sometimes be observed in rather frenzied mating clusters as they mob females emerging from their nests.
- When to see: They emerge from their nests as adults from late August and can be seen on the wing until November.
- Population Trend: Increasing their range in the UK.
- Threats: Unknown.
- Interesting Fact: The Ivy Bee is very similar in appearance to other plasterer bees, such as the Sea Aster Bee (Colletes halophilus) and the Heather Colletes Bee (Colletes succictus).
How you can help:
Buglife is helping to give our pollinator populations a boost via our projects and campaigns, including B-Lines and Solitary Bee Week, but we need your help!
Buglife B-Lines are an imaginative and beautiful solution to the problem of the loss of flowers and pollinators. B-Lines are a series of ‘insect pathways’ running through our countryside and towns, along which we are restoring and creating a series of wildflower-rich habitat stepping stones. Linking existing wildlife areas together, creating a network, that will weave across the UK landscape. More information about B-Lines and how you can help pollinators can be found on our B-Lines & Pollinator Projects pages.
Join a recording scheme and log your finds – send any records/sightings to BWARS or download the iRecord app and get recording!
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