Shaggy bees
A genus rather than a single species — Around 40 species, largely European and North African, and all of them composite specialists. General statements below are statements about the group.
Small, entirely black bees with conspicuously shaggy pollen brushes, found almost exclusively on yellow composites. They nest in bare sandy ground in aggregations, and the males have a habit of sleeping inside closed flower heads overnight — several can be found packed into a single hawkbit on a cool morning.
Can it sting?
Can sting and effectively never does. Far too small to be of any consequence.
How to recognise it
Small and entirely black with no pale banding at all, which is unusual and makes them identifiable at genus level with some confidence. Females carry long shaggy pollen hairs on the hind legs, often loaded with bright yellow composite pollen.
- Entirely black with no abdominal bands — unusual among small bees.
- Shaggy hind-leg pollen brushes, usually carrying bright yellow pollen.
- Found only on yellow composites — hawkbits, catsear, hawkweeds, dandelion relatives.
- Males frequently found asleep inside closed composite flower heads.
Body length 7–11 mm (typically 9 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 bare sandy or light soil, frequently in aggregations on heathland, brownfield land and coastal dunes. Several females may share an entrance while provisioning separate cells.
- Carries pollen
- Scopa — dense hairs on the hind leg
- On the wing
- June to September
Lifecycle
- EmergenceAdults emerge in high summer, timed to composite flowering.June to August.
- ProvisioningFemales collect yellow composite pollen exclusively, in loads so large the leg brushes are barely visible beneath them.Four to six weeks.
- OverwinteringThe larva develops on the provision and overwinters underground.Roughly ten months.
Where it lives and what it does
- Habitat
- Heathland, coastal dune, brownfield land, sandy grassland and quarries with abundant yellow composites.
- Distribution
- Europe and North Africa, with several species widespread across the continent.
- Behaviour
- Strictly oligolectic on yellow composites, and the male sleeping habit is one of the more charming things to find in a field — a hawkbit closed against the evening with several small black bees packed inside it. They also cling to flower heads in cool weather rather than returning to the nest.
- Pollination role
- Effective pollinators of yellow composites, which are themselves major forage plants for a wide range of other insects.
High on composites and zero elsewhere.
- What it forages on
- Yellow composites exclusively for provisioning — hawkbits, catsear, hawkweeds and their relatives.
Honey
Produces no honey
None. One pollen loaf per cell.
Relationship with people
- How people interact with it
- Unnoticed by almost everybody. Their habitat — open sandy ground with yellow composites — is the sort of land routinely described as scrubby waste and developed accordingly.
- Conservation
- Localised and declining with the loss of open sandy habitat to development and scrub encroachment.
Sources
- Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide
- The Bees of the World — Johns Hopkins University Press (2007) · Textbook
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Guides covering this bee
- The best flowers for beesHerbaceous flowers rather than trees and shrubs, chosen for output and length of season. Most of them are things you can grow in a border or a container.
- Summer plants for beesSummer looks abundant and contains a real gap. The weeks between the spring blossom finishing and high summer starting are thinner than most gardens realise, and colonies are at peak population when it happens.
- Making a wildflower area for beesA meadow is made by reducing fertility and weakening grass, not by scattering seed on a lawn. The single most useful plant in the process is a parasite.
Tools for supporting this bee
- Plant recommendation tool
Which plant fills this specific gap?
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?
- Flowering calendar
What should I plant so that something is always in flower for bees?