To see accurate pricing, please choose your delivery country.
 
 
United States
£ GBP
All Shops

British Wildlife

8 issues per year 84 pages per issue Subscription only

British Wildlife is the leading natural history magazine in the UK, providing essential reading for both enthusiast and professional naturalists and wildlife conservationists. Published eight times a year, British Wildlife bridges the gap between popular writing and scientific literature through a combination of long-form articles, regular columns and reports, book reviews and letters.

Subscriptions from £33 per year

Conservation Land Management

4 issues per year 44 pages per issue Subscription only

Conservation Land Management (CLM) is a quarterly magazine that is widely regarded as essential reading for all who are involved in land management for nature conservation, across the British Isles. CLM includes long-form articles, events listings, publication reviews, new product information and updates, reports of conferences and letters.

Subscriptions from £26 per year
Field Guides & Natural History  Insects & other Invertebrates  Insects  Bees, Ants & Wasps (Hymenoptera)

Solitary Bees

Monograph
Series: New Naturalist Series Volume: 146
By: Ted Benton(Author), Nick Owens(Author)
608 pages, 200 col plates, Index
Solitary Bees
Click to have a closer look
Select version
Average customer review
  • Solitary Bees ISBN: sig9780008304 Hardback Not in stock: Usually dispatched within 1-2 weeks
    £65.00
    #265538
  • Solitary Bees ISBN: 9780008304553 Hardback May 2023 In stock
    £46.99 £65.00
    #259552
  • Solitary Bees ISBN: 9780008304577 Paperback May 2023 Out of Print #259553
Selected version: £46.99
About this book Contents Customer reviews Biography Related titles
Images Additional images
Solitary BeesSolitary BeesSolitary BeesSolitary BeesSolitary Bees

About this book

A completely up-to-date introduction to the most common group of bees in Britain.

Bees, for most people, mean honey or bumble bees, but in fact these social species make up only a small proportion of the species that live in Britain. Open your eyes to the so-called 'solitary' bees, and discover a wonderfully diverse population - miners, leafcutters, carpenters and masons - many of which can be found in your own back garden.

Solitary bees come in a variety of colours and sizes, with some as large as bumblebees and some only a few millimetres long, and many are key pollinators for our crops and wildflowers. This comprehensive book will tell the story of how these bees live, reproduce and thrive: discover the numerous strategies used by male bees to find females and persuade them to mate; follow the females as they build their nests - or in the case of 'cuckoo' species, sneak into the nests of their neighbours - and watch as the new generation appears. Explore the interactions between flowering plants and their bee visitors, asking what the plants get from the relationship, as well as how the bees select the plants they visit, and the ingenuity required to extract pollen, nectar and other rewards. Finally, learn places where bees flourish and what can be done to encourage them and ensure they continue to pollinate our flowers and crops.

Drawing on all the latest research as well as the authors' own observations in the field, this timely New Naturalist gives a wonderful insight into the complicated lives of solitary bees, and the complexity of the behaviour and ecology of this remarkable group of insects.

Contents

Editor's preface   vi
Author's Acknowledgements   viii

Introduction   1
1. The Diversity of Solitary Bees   27
2. Sex and the Solitary Bee   59
3. The Life Cycle: Nesting Behaviour and Development   101
4. From Solitary to Social and Back   159
5. Bees and Flowers, Part I   177
6. Bees and Flowers, Part II   235
7. Parasites and Predators   303
8. Cuckoo Bees   361
9. Time, Space and Temperature   405
10. Ecology and Conservation   455

List of British Solitary Bees   531
Glossary   538
References and Bibliography   540
Species Index   568
General Index   582

Customer Reviews (1)

  • Our most important bee species
    By Keith 2 Jul 2023 Written for Paperback
    In the last year or so I have started to notice bees other than honey or bumble bees. I had clocked that there were 24 species of bumble bee, and I had started to identify them, but in a way, I was feeling that this was a bit of a cop-out as they are relatively easy to identify. So I went to look at solitary bees, and yes, … that’s getting tougher. Now we are talking about over 250 species in the UK, and as the name suggests – they are solitary. Although they are a bit harder to find and identify, they actually play an important role in the pollination of crops and wild flowering plants.

    OK, so yes the females of these solitary bees can still sting you, but they don’t do that unless you are being an idiot. In fact, they have a bigger fan club than you might imagine. Ever seen a bee hotel? They are for solitary bees. I am seeing them everywhere now, but I doubt that many people buying these know which bees they are trying to attract. So they should read this book.

    I would argue that nobody has done more in recent years to raise their profile than Ted Benton. Both he and Nick Owens are entomologists with a particular interest in behaviour and ecology. Ted’s recent field guide to solitary bees (published by Pelagic) is both well-written and attractive. However, collectors of the Collins New Naturalist series will know him from his earlier volume on Bumblebees and a previous one on Grasshopper and Crickets. Nick Owens has been busy too and has recently written The Bees of Norfolk and The Bumblebee Book as well as co-authoring The Bees and Wasps of the Balearic Islands.

    This latest book is (like other recent volumes in the NN series) on the large side – at almost 600 pages. Back in the 1930s the early NNs rarely exceeded 250 pages, but unlike those, this is packed full of colour photographs.

    The authors start by looking at the diversity of solitary bees, and then move on to explore their sex lives. They may be solitary, but they have to mate and the male needs to track down a female. Once he has mated with her (and maybe others) his life ends. The development of the grubs is followed, including hibernation through the winter. We are reminded that although these bees are solitary, they do often choose to nest close to other bees. The relationships between different bee species and flowers are explored in detail as is the complex matter of parasites, and the issue of “cuckoo bees” who lay eggs in the nests of other bees (including bumblebees).

    Given that insects like solitary bees are crucial to the pollination of our plants and the success of our agriculture, it is right that the book also puts the case for their protection and conservation. Despite an estimated 12 billion bees in the UK, they are declining and feeling the effects of habitat loss. Pollution and climate change are also challenges – as they struggle to cope with recent weather extremes that have brought summer droughts while at other times there is sudden flooding. The rapid changing of the seasons may mean that bees start to lose their synchronicity with the flowering plants they forage on.

    This book is a great resource to understand what solitary bees need. They make up 90% of the range of our bee species, and it’s time that we paid them more attention.
    19 of 24 found this helpful - Was this helpful to you? Yes No

Biography

Ted Benton is a sociology professor emeritus, whose academic work over more than 40 years has included development of critical realist philosophy as a basis for social science methodology, work on the sociology of power and pioneering work towards the non-reductive integration of life-science and especially ecological insights into social theory.
His previous books include the New Naturalist volumes Bumblebees (2006) and Grasshoppers & Crickets (2012).

Nick Owens did a doctorate on the social behaviour of baboons in Tanzania, based at Cambridge, and researched the ecology of Brent Geese with the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology before embarking on a career as a biology teacher at Oundle School. A long-term fascination with bumblebees led to field trips with Ted Benton, which evolved into a common interest in solitary bees. Nick's previous publications include Bumblebees of Norfolk (2012) and The Bumblebee Book (2020).

Monograph
Series: New Naturalist Series Volume: 146
By: Ted Benton(Author), Nick Owens(Author)
608 pages, 200 col plates, Index
Media reviews

Praise for New Naturalist Solitary Bees:
'This stands out as my book of the year, and if you are only going to have one New Naturalist book on your shelves or you are an avid collector of the series, this book is a must have and I thoroughly recommend it.' Steven Rutherford FBNA, Honorary Chairman, British Naturalists Association

Reviews of Ted Benton's previous volumes in the New Naturalist Series - Bumblebees and Grasshoppers & Crickets:

'The most authoritative work on British bumblebees ever published.'
Independent

'This book is an inspiration. It will fascinate and arm you with everything you need to know to help you save our bumblebees. Buy it, enjoy it, and keep it safe.'
BBC Wildlife

'Ted Benton's entomological opus [New Naturalist] Grasshoppers & Crickets led me into the weird world of British orthoptera, with their edible nuptial gifts, "mate-guarding", harems and extraordinarily complex songs. No field or meadow will seem or sound the same again' Robert Macfarlane, 'Books of the Year 2012', Guardian

Current promotions
New and Forthcoming BooksBest of WinterNHBS Moth TrapBuyers Guides