Early mining bee

How to recognise it

A medium mining bee with a bright foxy-red thorax, a dark abdomen, and — the diagnostic feature — a conspicuous orange-red tip to the abdomen. The combination of red thorax and red tail with a dark body between is distinctive.

• Foxy-red thorax and an orange-red tail tip on a dark abdomen.
• Flies March to June, among the earliest mining bees.
• Small soil mounds in lawns, banks and path edges.
• Common and widespread, unlike most identifiable Andrena.

Body length 8–13 mm (typically 11 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

Digs burrows in short turf, lawns, banks and path edges, often in loose aggregations. Cells branch off a vertical shaft, each provisioned with a pollen loaf and a single egg.

Carries pollen

Scopa — dense hairs on the hind leg

On the wing

March to June

Lifecycle

1. 1EmergenceAdults emerge in March and April, males slightly ahead of females.March to April.
2. 2NestingEach female provisions her own burrow alone for four to six weeks and then dies.
3. 3OverwinteringLarvae develop through summer and overwinter underground as adults, emerging the following spring.Roughly eleven months.

Where it lives and what it does

Habitat

Lawns, gardens, parks, hedge banks, woodland rides, coastal cliffs and brownfield land.

Distribution

Across Europe from Ireland and Scandinavia to the Mediterranean.

Behaviour

Fast, low and busy, making repeated short trips between burrow and blossom through spring. It is one of the better species for introducing someone to solitary bees, because it is common, identifiable and completely indifferent to being watched.

Pollination role

A useful early pollinator of fruit blossom, willow, dandelion, blackthorn and hawthorn, flying in cool conditions when honey bees are still clustered.

High on spring blossom, and valuable for flying in cool April weather.

What it forages on

A broad generalist favouring spring blossom, willow and dandelion.

Honey

Produces no honey

None. One pollen loaf per cell, no colony, no winter store.

Relationship with people

How people interact with it

Encountered mostly as small mounds in a lawn and reported as a problem it is not. The mounds are temporary, do no damage, and wash back into the sward after the bees have finished.

Management

Nothing needs doing. Mowing normally is harmless; the nests are far below blade height.

Conservation

Widespread and common. Like all ground-nesting bees it is squeezed by soil sealing — paving, artificial grass and landscape fabric all eliminate nesting habitat.