What types of bees and wasps are there in ireland. what do they look
like and how to tell them apart

Hello wolf1966,

 Types of bees and wasps in Ireland:

  ?In Ireland we have twenty species of social bees but 71 types of
solitary bee. We have six social wasps but 53 species of solitary
wasp.?
http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/archive/20020906.html

??within the City of Dublin there are at least eight different species
of bumble bee that overlap in their living and foraging space, and
there are at least 18 species of bumble bees in Ireland.?
http://www.irishscientist.ie/2002/contents.asp?contentxml=02p191a.xml&contentxsl=is02pages.xsl

?A.m.mellifera still exerts a dominant influence over large areas of
Great Britain and Ireland although pure examples are comparatively
rare?
http://www.angus.co.uk/bibba/bibborig.html

Picture of the European Dark Bee (Apis Mellifera)
http://www.apis-mellifera-mellifera.de/

Another Apis photo
http://www.floridanature.org/photos/Apis_mellifera_6b_&_Trifolium_sp.,_TBP,_Tallahassee,_20030323.jpg

?Potentially hundreds of new species of wasp have been discovered by
scientists working on one of the largest environmental research
projects ever undertaken in Ireland.?
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2004/0807/2714789733HM1WASPS.html

?The Dark European Honeybee is the indigenous bee of Ireland, and it
is therefore more suited to our damp oceanic climate than other
subspecies of bees that have originated in warmer and drier climes.?
http://www.galteehoneyfarm.com/darkgalteequeens.htm

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Determining bees from wasps:

============================

?Wasps have shiny bodies with prominent yellow and black stripes. In
nature, yellow and black stripes are a warning to would be predators
that the creature possesses a powerful defence, usually a sting or
poison. Note: Some flies 'pretend' to be wasps by also possessing
yellow and black stripes. Even though they have no such defence,
predators might be fooled and not attack.
Bees have much more hairy bodies particularly the bumble bees. Some
bumble bees and solitary bees have yellow and black stripes, but these
are stripes of coloured hairs. The honey bee is predominantly dark
brown with a shiny abdomen and lighter hairy thorax.?
http://www.simplyonecall.co.uk/Wsp_bee.html
?The main difference between Bees and Wasps is that Bees feed their
larvae on 'honey' a mixture of pollen and nectar, whereas Wasps feed
their larvae on meat, mostly paralysed arthropods (the exception that
makes this rule are the Pollen Wasps Masarinae). The Wasp paralyses
its prey rather than kills it, this is so that it will not rot before
the larvae gets a chance to eat it. If you get to look at them under a
microscope you will see another more taxonomically sound difference,
i.e. Bees always have some, often many, 'plumose' or 'feather-like'
hairs, these help in collecting pollen; Wasps always have only
unbranched hairs like you and me.?
http://www.earthlife.net/insects/solwasps.html

Here are two pictures of a battle between a bee and a wasp. Here you
can get a good comparison of the two.
http://www.dewijs-3d.com/Macrolens_for_SLR_cameras/insects.htm

More pictures of bees and wasps
http://www.tamstuart.com/Insects/insect001.htm

Photos of two common species of wasps in Ireland, the common wasp,
Vespula Vulgaris  and the  German Wasp (Vespula germanica).
http://www.simplyonecall.co.uk/Wasps.html

Photos of Irish bees:
http://www.simplyonecall.co.uk/Bees.html

Close up of a bumble bee in the UK
http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/weatherreports/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=30154

Additional Information:

An Irish bee tale:
http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/ASaints/Modomnoc.html

History of bees in Ireland
http://www.apimondia2005.com/historyofirishbeekeeping/historyofirishbeekeeping.html

I can tell you that the The Hairy-footed Flower-bee is NOT present in Ireland!
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/insident/masonbee.html

Nor is the Red Mason bee present in Ireland. ?It is absent from
Ireland, but extends across the whole of Europe and even penetrates
south into the Mediterranean Basin.?
http://www.btinternet.com/~bury_rd/mason.htm

Not a bee!
http://www.bugs.org/GalleryPages/Robberfly_mimic.shtml

?Vespidae is a family of six closely related species of wasp most of
which cause no problem whatsoever. Of these, the one that bothers
people is a social wasp known as the Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) of
which there are three forms, the female or Queen, the Male and the
Workers.?
http://www.waterford-today.ie/index.php?id=11416&what=2&issue=215

Common Wasp picures:
http://www.ask.co.uk/ix.asp?q=Wasp+Species&ac=none&xx=0&qid=35931E7088545349B3509ABF51358DF3&p=1&&sp=ix&fn=tuk&b=10&fo=2&r=10&io=4&fp=5&fr=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ethe%2Dpiedpiper%2Eco%2Euk%2Fth4%2Ehtm&adurl=

Honeybees, Wasps, and Bumblebees
http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/factsheets/factsheetbees.html

An article from the Limerick Leader
http://www.limerick-leader.ie/issues/20000902/tuaithe.html

See how a bee sees!
http://cvs.anu.edu.au/andy/beye/gallery.html

A book on the species of wasps and bees in Ireland
http://www.earthlife.net/insects/pub/brc-ite.html#aculeates-01

A distribution of bees in the world
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/bombus/introduction.html
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/bombus/decline.html

Hope this helps you know your bees from your wasps!
If any part of this answer is unclear, please request an Answer
Clarification, before rating, and I will be happy to assist you
further.
Regards,
crabcakes


Search Terms
Hymenoptera Ireland
Bees wasps local Ireland
bees wasps species Ireland
difference bees wasps
insects Ireland

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Clarification of Answer by crabcakes-ga on 04 Sep 2004 14:52 PDT

Additionally "Here in Ireland two main types of bees pollinate apples.
There are bumble bees and honey bees. Bumblebees are hardy insects and
are well adapted to flying in our cold spring weather. Honeybees on
the other hand prefer it a bit warmer. Maybe this is because they're
smaller than the bumblebee, or perhaps because the type of honeybee
which is kept by Irish beekeepers originated in the Mediterranean
region. However, their popularity here is justified, because for the
beekeeper they have good characteristics. They are not too aggressive
(stinging only occasionally); they produce lots of honey and reproduce
quickly."
http://www.theapplefarm.com/newsletter/newsletter0141.htm