Ivy bee

I spent most of today at Beeding cement works near Shoreham looking for the elusive colony of Long-tailed blue butterflies that have hatched out from the Everlasting pea that grows there. 
The Long-tailed blue is a European species that has in the last few years come over the channel and formed a little colony which sadly dies out through our winter.
Sadly too, even though they were there on Sunday and the conditions were really good today no Long-tailed blues were found!
However there were lots of these Ivy bees Colletes hederae, nectaring on the numerous ivy plants.
The Ivy bee is a species of mining bee first recorded in Britain in 2001, it forages almost exclusively on Ivy and can be found from September to November when the Ivy is flowering.
There were both males and the larger females there today, which more than made up for the lack of blues!