Each year new bee species are described. There are also discoveries of new species for a country or region. On the cartoon you can see the ivy bee (Colletes hederae), whom you might remember from my older blog posts. This species is currently expanding its range in Europe, and discovered in the areas where it has never been seen previously. But there is also a quite interesting story of its discovery as a new species. It was described as late as 1993, even though it is a species living not in remote tropical areas, but in well-studied areas of Europe. It simply was thought to be a strange, late-flying individuals of other Colletes species, with a soft spot for ivy. Thanks to Schmidt and Westrich it was raised to the range of species.

