People, Places and Species A History of the Study of Wasps, Ants and Bees in Watsonian Yorkshire

About this book

The introduction section considers the characteristics of the people involved in the study of Yorkshire aculeates. Then follows an introduction to the aculeates, their life-histories and resource needs and hence the kinds of habitats in which they are found. The People and Places section is divided into four time periods: the nineteenth century, the early twentieth century to 1939, the mid-twentieth century from 1940 until 1979 and finally the late twentieth century until the present (2009). The life histories of 30 past and present people are given from information obtained from obituaries and profiles and the characteristics of 42 sites they visited are considered. From short notes in the Naturalist, three stories are told about mutilated bumblebees, solitary species nesting in or on human artefacts and the Velvet Ant. The Species section continues with the history of the discovery of the Yorkshire aculeate species and considers the problems that a recorder experiences in assembling an electronic database of records. This Species section considers sources of species information, particularly of early records, the problems of record verification, of records with no year date and records with no collector's name. Species represented by one, two or three records are given special consideration, as are species that have been re-recorded after a long lapse of time, extinct species and records that are rejected. The climax of this section is the tables showing when the 338 species from Watsonian Yorkshire were first found during each of four time periods and the first recorder of each species.

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