Where Britain's wild bees live

Around 270 native bee species share these islands: 24 bumblebees, around 245 solitary bees and a single honeybee.^[1]^[2] Tap a region to explore what flies there, or filter by group.

270

Espèces

Bourdons

Regions

Richness

~95 to ~240 spp

References & sources

Part of the HoneyBee & Co. Bee Education Series. Explore global species in the Atlas mondial des abeilles and see how bee decline affects your food in Votre assiette sans abeilles.

National Bee Unit. Wild Bees in the UK (Fact Sheet 08, October 2024). APHA / Defra. PDF
Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society. National recording scheme for aculeate Hymenoptera in Britain & Ireland. bwars.com
Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Bumblebee Species Guide — 24 species accounts with distribution maps. bumblebeeconservation.org
Powney, G. D. et al. (2019). Widespread losses of pollinating insects in Britain. Nature Communications 10:1018. doi.org
Species on the Edge / NatureScot. Bourdon jaune — distribution, ecology and conservation status. speciesontheedge.co.uk
Buglife — The Invertebrate Conservation Trust. Bug directory: Bombus distinguendus, Bombus sylvarum, Osmia xanthomelana. buglife.org.uk
Natural England. Species Recovery Programme — Bombus sylvarum (Shrill Carder Bee) strongholds: Thames Estuary, Gwent Levels, Somerset, Salisbury Plain. gov.uk/natural-england
Falk, S. J. (2015). Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland (Guide de terrain des abeilles de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande). British Wildlife Publishing. britishwildlife.com
Else, G. R. & Edwards, M. (2018). Handbook of the Bees of the British Isles. Ray Society. raysociety.org.uk
UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS). UKCEH / JNCC national citizen science survey, annual reports. ukpoms.org.uk
National Biodiversity Network Atlas. UK occurrence records for wild bees. nbnatlas.org
UK Parliament, House of Commons Library. Bee numbers and decline, Research Briefing CDP-2017-0226 (updated 2026). commonslibrary.parliament.uk

Regional species totals are indicative figures derived from BWARS county-level recording and NBN Atlas distribution data. Many solitary bee taxa are under-recorded outside southern England; treat figures as minimum counts. Notable-species attributions follow Falk (2015) and current BWARS species accounts.