Last month, I received some help from Zestin on the identification of the Nomia bees. Apparently, among my bee pictures under Nomia strigata, there were mixtures of 2 other species, Nomia iridescens and Nomia lusoria in there. Fortunately, he had made it quite easy for me to differentiate them visually:

• Nomia incerta: Missing the coloured opalescent band on the first abdominal segment.
• Nomia lusoria: A mangrove species that has purple-greenish bands.

Zestin had co-authored at least 2 local publications on bees in Singapore. One of two was about bees and wasps in Singapore parks based on a survey done in 2013 [1]. The park that I frequented in the north was not part of the survey areas in the report. The other more recent publication in 2016 was on a specific type of bees available here [2].

While working on my online research on bees, I came across 2 blogs related to bees in Singapore. They appeared to be part of a conservation psychology course in Singapore where the students had to set up a blog. The posts did not have any date but based on the references cited, they were likely to be done in 2017. I guess they will not be updated since they were merely course assignments.

• Bees in Singapore blog by Pei Ying.
• Being with Bees in Singapore by Kim Tae Hyun.

Besides the blogs, NParks website had a nice write up on the bees and wasps encounter in Singapore. There was also an article written on bees in NParks' online quarterly newsletter, mygreenspace in 2014. There was also a Facebook page on Bees & Wasps of Singapore. Last but not least, I do have a humble collection of pictures of bees in Singapore as well.

In the month of April, I was at Admiralty Park on 3 of the 4 weekends. Below were 4 of the bees seen during the visits where I managed to snap at least a reasonably good picture. Two of them were Nomia strigata, both were visiting the large flower of the Dillenia suffruticosa (Simpoh Air). The third one was a Ceratina species found on the flower of Leea indica (Bandicoot Berry). The last one was a tiny bee (Braunsapis species) found on the flowers of Praxelis clematidea.

Reference:

[1] Soh ZWW, Ngiam RWJ. Flower-visiting bees and wasps in Singapore parks (Insecta: Hymenoptera). Nature in Singapore 2013;6:153-172. | Read article |

[2] Ascher JS, Risch S, Soh ZWW, Lee JXQ, Soh EJY. Megachile leaf-cutter and resin bees of Singapore (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Megachilidae). Raffles Bull Zoology 2016;32(Suppl):33-55. | Read article |