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The rare and rather lovely Anthophora retusa

So I've already told you about one of the rare bees I study, I'm now going to introduce the second one, Anthophora retusa.

A. retusa, or the flower potter bee, is an incredibly rare solitary bee which is now found only in a few sites along the coast of southern England. It used to be much more abundant, however since the second world war and the increase in intense farming much of its once wild flower rich habitat has been destroyed. This reduction in nectar abundant forage has forced this charming bee into only a few sites. This, along with its seemingly rather picky nesting choices, has resulted in the dramatic range decline.

Something this bee has really taught me though is when choosing where to live, it's all about location, and I have to admit it has chosen a pretty fantastic location to make a base. The particularly stunning Seaford Head, here in Sussex (photo below).

This is one of the main known locations of Anthophora retusa not only because it contains the important cliffs these bees nest in, but also because of the fantastic management of the area by the Sussex Wildlife trust. They have created a wonderfully nectar rich habitat, with plenty of nooks and crannies, creating multiple micro climates to suit this bees needs.

The reason why I am writing this blog post now is because as part of my PhD I am trying to get an idea of how strong the population of retusa is here by conducting mark recapture. I already introduced the methods of mark recapture as it is what I used with the longicornis bee at Gatwick (see previous post) although some of the specifics have changed here slightly. Instead of only covering nesting aggregations with retusa I am covering the entire area where they are found. This is mainly because where they nest is kind of impossible to reach, not that we haven't tried! (see ridiculously large net below).

That small hole in the cliff face is what we are aiming for.

So what this venture entails is walking a series of fixed transects, catching every retusa bee, marking him/her and also noting down its GPS coordinates. From this information we can estimate population and also estimate foraging distances. This all sounds simple enough, however one issue is that retusa looks incredibly similar to another, much more common bee, Anthophora plumipies. Bellow is a photo of two males of the different species.

You can tell them apart (retusa is the one on the right), however it does require catching and looking at them close up, making the whole process take a little longer. But I can't complain really as there are worse ways to spend your time!

I've only just stared this work this spring so will keep you updated on the results!


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