Digger bees

How to recognise it

Stocky and densely furry, resembling small bumblebees but flying much faster and hovering in a way no bumblebee does. In the hairy-footed flower bee, Anthophora plumipes, females are entirely black with orange pollen brushes on the hind legs and males are gingery-brown with long feathery hairs on the middle legs.

• Rapid darting flight with distinct hovering — unlike the steady blundering flight of a bumblebee.
• Bumblebee-like build but noticeably faster and usually smaller.
• A long tongue held out straight in flight, often visible as the bee hovers.
• In the commonest British species, black females and ginger males that look like different animals entirely.

Body length 8–18 mm (typically 14 mm).

Biology

Social organisation

Solitary

Each female builds and provisions her own nest with no workers and no caste. Most of the world's bee species.

Nesting

Burrows in the ground; Tunnels excavated in wood

Excavates burrows in soil, and characteristically in vertical or near-vertical surfaces — earth banks, cob and lime-mortared walls, and the soft mortar of old buildings. Some species build a small chimney or turret of mud around the entrance. Nesting is often in dense aggregations, and old walls with many holes are frequently occupied for decades.

Carries pollen

Scopa — dense hairs on the hind leg

On the wing

February to June

Lifecycle

1. 1Early emergenceMales emerge first, often in late February or early March, and patrol favoured flower patches waiting for females. This makes them among the very earliest bees of the year.February to March.
2. 2NestingFemales dig and provision cells alone through spring, working fast — digger bees are unusually quick foragers and can complete cells rapidly.Six to ten weeks.
3. 3OverwinteringLarvae develop over the summer and overwinter as adults in their cells, emerging the following spring.Roughly ten months.

Where it lives and what it does

Habitat

Gardens, old walls, earth banks, coastal cliffs, quarries and warm south-facing slopes. Historic buildings with lime mortar are among the most important habitats in built-up areas.

Distribution

Worldwide except Australia, with the greatest diversity in warm dry regions.

Behaviour

The flight is the giveaway: fast, darting, and punctuated by precise hovering in front of a flower with the tongue extended. Males of Anthophora plumipes hold territories over patches of lungwort and comfrey and chase off rivals with considerable determination. The long tongue lets them exploit deep flowers that most spring bees cannot reach.

Pollination role

Important early-season pollinators, and specifically of deep tubular flowers — lungwort, comfrey, dead-nettles, rosemary and the like — where their long tongues let them feed legitimately rather than robbing. They fly in cooler weather than honey bees and start weeks earlier.

High, and concentrated on deep-flowered plants and on the early spring window.

What it forages on

Strongly favours deep tubular flowers — lungwort, comfrey, dead-nettle, rosemary, sages and vetches — which their long tongues open up to them.

Honey

Produces no honey

None. Solitary, one provision per cell, no colony and no winter store.

Relationship with people

How people interact with it

Frequently reported as a problem when they nest in the soft mortar of old buildings. They do not cause the damage — they occupy erosion that has already happened, and repointing with hard cement mortar destroys the nests and, over time, the wall as well.

Conservation

Several species are declining with the loss of soft-mortar walls, earth banks and warm bare ground. The replacement of lime mortar with cement in building repair has removed a great deal of nesting habitat across historic towns.