UK Nature and Environment

When rangers at Kinver Edge in Staffordshire discovered rare black oil beetles on a stretch of restored heathland, they knew there was only one way they could have arrived there: by hitching a ride on a solitary bee.

“Their life cycle is really cool, probably the most interesting of any British insect,” said Ewan Chapman, the countryside manager for Kinver Edge, as he set out into the heathland on a warm March morning to try to spot some.

These shiny black beetles, native to the UK, are increasingly vulnerable and completely reliant on a healthy bee population in order to survive.

The female beetles burrow underground where they lay thousands of eggs. These hatch into larvae, which climb up nearby flowers or grass stems and wait for a bee to arrive. The larvae hitch a ride on the bee, consuming pollen, before later re-emerging in a new location as adult beetles.