Solitary Bee Prints

I finished the series of solitary bee prints today in the print rooms at Uni in Preston.

I chose 3 of the bees we recorded on site at YSP in the summer: Andrena denticulata, Andrena helvola and Andrena subopaca.

I wanted to show how complex the subject is and how it's not that easy to identify them without a complicated key with obscure definitions and a microscope to look at the bees so very closely.

I've had lots of help with this part of the project - firstly it was Brian, the ecologist, who helped me survey the site and catch the bees; then Carl Clee at Liverpool Museum helped us to make an ID; and again, later on, at Liverpool Museum Guy Knight let me go and take images of their bees in the collection; and finally the amazing Magda Stawarska-Beavan who guided me patiently through the screen print process.