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Tag Archives: mining bees

Andrena haemorrhoa

17 Wednesday May 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Andrena bees, Andrena haemorrhoa, British bees, Early mining bee, mining bees, Orange-tailed mining bee

Bee-cause I hardly ever manage to identify bees to species, I just had to share this one that was a first for me and has been identified. My local go-to guy for bee identification, Liam from Buglife Cymru, says this is a ‘nice distinctive one with the orange thorax and black abdomen with bright orange tail. Also orange hind legs beneath the pollen brush’. Meet Andrena haemorrhoa, in this case a female specimen. When I recorded it, the common name came up as Orange-tailed mining bee, though the Naturespot website calls it the Early mining bee. Same same, but different.

230517 Andrena haemorrhoa

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Bee-flies revisited

28 Friday Apr 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Bombylius major, Dark-edged bee-flies, lifecycle of Dark-edged bee-fly, mining bee predation, mining bees

I blogged about Dark-edged bee-flies earlier this month but, since then, I’ve noticed one doing something odd so thought I’d share what I’ve since found out about what it was doing. I spotted an area of miniature soil volcanoes where mining bees were active, digging out the tunnels in which they would lay their eggs, and, nearby, a sweet little bee-fly flicking its own eggs in to the holes of the bees it predates.

230428 bee-flies revisited (1)

Then, that same bee-fly started hovering in one spot, frantically beating its wings but going nowhere (see video below). What was it doing? I asked on Twitter, and one of my followers suggested ‘It could be filling its rear-end up with sand’ – not a sentence I ever thought I’d read! But this was sort of right.

Someone from the Soldierflies and Allies Recording Scheme referred me to their website entry for bee-flies, which explains that ‘the adult females collect dust or sand at the tip of their abdomen, using it to coat their eggs, which helps protect the eggs from drying out.’ I’m guessing the sandy coating also means the eggs roll more easily into the bees’ tunnels. It was a fascinating insight into what is an extraordinary lifecycle, though I can’t help but feel some sympathy for the hard-working mining bee victims.

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Bee volcanoes

06 Wednesday Apr 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British bees, mining bee nests, mining bees, solitary bee nests, solitary bees, tiny piles of dirt

I can’t take the credit for the title of today’s post: by sheer coincidence, after returning from a walk with photos of these tiny dirt mountains, I spotted a tweet about the mini volcanoes of the bee Andrena fulva, and it seemed a very appropriate description. Mine may not be the work of that same bee species but they do indicate where solitary bees have dug out nest burrows for their young. I’m not sure whether these bee volcanoes are from newly hatched bees emerging from their winter nests or these volcanoes have only recently been excavated for the adult bees to lay this year’s eggs.

220406 solitary bee nest (1)
220406 solitary bee nest (2)
220406 solitary bee nest (3)

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Another percher

14 Monday Mar 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Andrena flavipes, bee on finger, British bees, mining bees

How lucky am I? After blogging last week about my delight at having a hoverfly sit on my hand, I’ve had another tiny percher. This time it was a bee, possibly a Yellow-legged mining-bee (Andrena flavipes), but don’t quote me on that. It was reluctant to fly off, as it was a cool day, so I carried it along with me until I got to a willow with open catkins, which my little flying friend was happy to move on to.

220314 bee on finger

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108/366 Tawny miners

17 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

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Andrena fulva, British bees, mining bees, Tawny mining bee

Another day, another mining bee. You’ll recall we had the grey-haired Ashy mining bee on Tuesday; well, today we have the Tawny mining bee (Andrena fulva). And what a cracking colour it is! I’d love to have hair like this.

200417 Tawny mining bee (1)

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust website says these bees ‘can be found nesting in large groups and can be common in urban environments and garden lawns’ but I think that depends on location as the bees I see locally are usually singles, in less urban environments and, sadly, not as common as I’d like them to be, as their rich vibrant colour is very cheering.

200417 Tawny mining bee (2)

Unfortunately, just like the Ashy mining bees, the Tawnies can also fall victim to bee-fly predation. You can read more about that and the bees themselves on the BCT website here.

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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