Large wallpaper bee spotted again in West Flanders

During a bee inventory in 2020 at the provincial domain of Bergelen in Gullegem, a male specimen of the very rare large wallpaper bee (Megachile lagopoda) was found twice.

Two years later, the Aculea West Flanders working group again found a male of a large wallpaperer bee during the project in Harelbeke. According to Natuurpunt in Flanders, only a few sightings of this species were reported, but these all date from before 1950.

“Three recent observations in two years relatively close together could point to an existing small population in South West Flanders”, explains Yves Gevaert of the Aculea West Flanders working group.

Very rare

“The large paper bee has been previously observed in Wallonia and the north of France, but the species is extremely rare with only a few sightings. In Wallonia, the species has recently only been observed in the vicinity of Tournai in Hainaut and Tellin in Luxembourg.”

The large males are easy to distinguish from the other types of wallpaper bees. They have very broadened white front tarsus, the structure at the end of the leg, with white hair fringes ending in black, black eyes and a huge swollen and arched hind tiba.

“The only species with which it can be confused is the coastal wallpaper bee, but this species has green eyes and orange hairs on the ends of the front tarsus. As its name suggests, the coastal wallpaper bee is strongly bound to warm and sandy biotopes, as well as dry heath and calcareous grasslands,” says Gevaert.