Mourning bees

How to recognise it

Medium-sized, black and sparsely haired, with distinctive patches and tufts of white or pale hair on the sides of the abdomen and on the legs. Hard-shelled and shining beneath the sparse hair, and with no pollen-carrying structures.

• Black with scattered white hair tufts — a distinctive and slightly moth-eaten appearance.
• No pollen brushes anywhere on the body.
• Flying slowly and searching around old walls, earth banks and cob in early spring.
• Emerges alongside its hairy-footed flower bee hosts.

Body length 11–17 mm (typically 14 mm).

Biology

Social organisation

Cleptoparasitic — lays in other bees' nests

Builds no nest and gathers no pollen for her own young, laying instead in another bee's provisioned cell. Sometimes called cuckoo bees.

Nesting

Builds no nest

Builds nothing. The female locates a provisioned Anthophora cell and lays her egg in it; the larva has enlarged jaws in the first instar used to kill the host's egg or larva before consuming the pollen provision.

Carries pollen

Carries no pollen for young

On the wing

March to June

Lifecycle

1. 1Emergence timed to the hostAdults emerge in early spring alongside their digger bee hosts, which is essential — the host must already be provisioning cells.March to May.
2. 2Searching and layingThe female patrols host nesting aggregations, entering burrows and laying in provisioned cells.
3. 3Host eliminationThe first-instar larva kills the host offspring and then moults into an ordinary grub to eat the provision.

Where it lives and what it does

Habitat

Wherever the hosts nest — old walls, cob buildings, earth banks, coastal cliffs and quarries.

Distribution

Across Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America, following the distribution of Anthophora.

Behaviour

Slow, deliberate and searching, in marked contrast to the fast darting flight of the hosts it follows. The characteristic sight is a black-and-white bee working methodically along a lime-mortared wall in April while the digger bees dash around it.

Pollination role

Negligible. It visits flowers only for its own fuel. Its ecological significance is as an indicator of a substantial host population.

Incidental only.

What it forages on

Visits deep spring flowers for its own nectar, following its hosts' preferences without needing the pollen.

Honey

Produces no honey

None. No nest, no colony, no stores.

Relationship with people

How people interact with it

Almost unknown, and directly affected by building repair. Repointing historic walls with cement mortar destroys the host aggregations and the parasites with them.

Conservation

Declining alongside its hosts with the loss of soft-mortar walls and warm earth banks. As an obligate parasite it needs the host abundant rather than merely present.