Mining Bees

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Nice to have some bees about. On the left Chocolate Mining Bee (Andrena scotica) and on the right Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria). Late April is about the best time for both these common mining bee species.

Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae, #962)

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I’ve been looking for these late-flying bees the past couple of autumns, so I’m glad they have reached my neck of the woods this year. These stripey Colletes bees fly from September to November, timed to match when Ivy is in flower, and nest (sometimes in huge colonies) in sandy South facing slopes. The ivy on our wall is now flowering and attracting lots of insects, and several of these bees were present. Ivy Bee is another non-native species in UK, first recorded in 2001 and now spread across southern England and Wales.

The first Mining Bees

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Still a bit drowsy (and easier to photograph), due to the cooler temperature, but the first mining bees are out and about in the village. These are male Yellow-legged Mining Bees (Andrena flavipes) which live in a large colony on a south facing bank by the road. These bees have two generations, one in early spring and a second in the summer. They are quite widely distributed in the southern half of England.

#309 Yellow-legged Mining Bee (Andrena flavipes)

Red Mason Bee Colony

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I found a new colony of Red Mason Bees (Osmia bicornis) in the mortar of a brick wall on the path to our house. The bees are very active, at least when the sun is shining.

Bumblebees

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These are a selection of bumblebees attracted to garden flowers, especially the thistle, I took eht photos a couple of weeks ago and since then there are many fewer bees around. These, plus the Buff-tailed Bumblebee are the commonest species here, with sometime an Early Bumblebee or two to be seen.

Bees are Back

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It seems like so long, but the first bees are back in the garden, with sunny days meaning we have some spring bees. A few bumble bees, honey bees on the heather, mini-mining bees on the daffodils and this male Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis) sunbathing on the willow tree. It seems quite early for this species, right at the end of Feb, but then it was a lovely warm afternoon and the smaller males do appear a couple of weeks before the females.

Not for want of looking, but this is the first thing worth a mention that I’ve seen all month, except a few un-photographed birds. Even the moth trap has drawn a blank on its two excursions so far this year, but if it stays warm it looks like I’ll be giving it another go soon.

#575 Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis)

#575 Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis)

Common Furrow Bee (Lasioglossum calceatum)

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There were several of these bees on the Golden Rod, some individuals like this one showing a lot of red on the body, others completely dark. Looking into it, I believe these are Common Furrow Bee (Lasioglossum calceatum, #679). The males show variable amounts of red like this, while the females lack red colouration. These are ground nesting solitary bees, which are usually found in small colonies in short turf or other sunny areas of open ground .

Early Bees

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It’s no longer at all “early”, but it was nice to see two early bees this week: Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum, #179) and Early Mining Bee (Andrena haemorrhoa, #445). There’s no longer many mining bees around, but these Early Mining Bees, with their rufus-red hair on the thorax (and somewhat on the tail), were showing well on Pyracantha blossom. While there are plenty of bumble bees enjoying the foxgloves, I don’t see Early Bumblebee very often so I was happy to get a snap of this one, with its lemon yellow front and orange-yellow bottom, taking a rest on the garden shed.

Miners, Masons & Nomads

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Last year seemed a bumper year for bees, but this year the apple tree didn’t blossom and thanks to the warm dry weather the flowering season for many of the plants in the garden seemed short. As a result there were less mining bees around than previous years. None the less, in the end I saw most of the same bee species as last year, and even added a couple new ones.

Star of the show was a Red-girdled Mining Bee (Andrena labiata, #571) which turned up one day on the yellow wallflowers. This is not such a common bee, but apparently it likes speedwells, of which I have four kinds in my lawn, so hopefully it’ll stick around. Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria) and Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva) were also around during April. Lastly I added Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis, #575) to the garden list, investigating holes in the wall as potential nesting places.

Following the mining bees, there were some nomad bees. Marsham's Nomad Bee (Nomada marshamella, #481), with it’s broken yellow band seemed the commoner one this year, but this male Flavous Nomad Bee (Nomada flava, #463) obligingly flew in through the window.

Pollinators & Plum Blossom

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A variety of insects are quickly appearing now the plum is in full bloom and the sun is out. The blossom is attracting pollinating flies, the first Drone Flies and this hoverfly, Meliscaeva auricollis (#558), a small dark species that is one of the earliest emerging hoverflies. There are some more bees about too, and a couple of Dark-edged Bee Flies (Bombylius major). The Bee Flies hover to take nectar, so I was happy this one actually sat still long enough on the sunlit wall for me to get a photo.

Barbut's Cuckoo Bee (Bombus barbutellus, #537 )

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This faded male bumblebee is, I believe, Barbut’s Cuckoo Bee. This species resembles its host, Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum), but has an almost circular face, unlike the elongated face of Bombus hortorum. As a cuckoo bee, the female searches out a nest of its host bumblebee, entering the nest, usually killing the host queen, then laying its eggs in the nest. The cuckoo bees larvae are then fed and looked after by the host worker bees until they leave the nest in July - September.

Attracted to Yellow

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When the sun shines the number of insects on the flowers goes up. The current batch of pollinating insects seem to like yellow and orange best; the Goldenrod (which is just opening up) being hands down the most popular with many species.

Long hoverflies are one of the commonest species at this time, along with marmalade and white-footed hoverflies. I’ve also seen a few Thick-legged Hoverflies (Syritta pipiens), a species that I didn’t record last year.

The small bee is I believe a collettes, Colletes daviesanus. These are plasterer bees and nest, sometimes in large colonies, in the mortar on old walls. I’m sure they will like the soft lime mortar on my walls and apparently a big colony can eventually damage the fabric of the wall. The bristly, orange-marked fly is Eriothrix rufomaculata. The adults of this species are attracted to flowers, while their larvae are parasites of moth larvae.

Flavous Nomad Bee (Nomada flava, #463)

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These nomad bees have been driving me mad the last few days as they are pretty small (+/- 1 cm) and hardly ever land for more than a few seconds. They just cruise around and around the elder trees in the wild corner of the garden. Today I got a break as one of them got trapped in a spider’s web enabling me to get a decent look. They really do look like mini wasps, patrolling around like wasps too; but close up you can see red mixed with the yellow stripes on the body. This one appears to be Flavous Nomad Bee (Nomada flava), but the identification between this species and Panzer’s Nomad Bee is pretty difficult. Nomad bees are kleptoparasitic cuckoo bees of mining bees; in this case usually Andrena scotica (Chocolate Mining Bee). Apparently the males search our the host bee’s nests, which they scent mark, helping the females to locate the nests for egg laying. The nomad bee’s larvae kill the host’s and any other nomad bee larvae present, so only one bee larva remains in the nest to feed of the stored pollen & nectar, the adult wasp emerging the next Spring.

Easter Pick & Mix

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A bit of a mixed bag around the garden today, with Chocolate Mining Bee (Andrena scotica, 459) adding to the medley of mining bees that are present at the moment. A few Amara ground. beetles were to be seen in the sunshine; this one appears like a Common Sun Beetle (Amara aenea). Next a couple of spiders. Zebra Spider (Salticus scenicus, #460) is usually a common enough species of jumping spider, but I didn’t find one last summer, so it was nice to catch this one in the sunshine by the front door. The not-so-long-legged harvestman is Phalangium opilio (#461); found while doing some gardening,

Sorting out some Bees

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I'm finding bees pretty hard to identify, despite having a Falk's field guide to the Bees of GB & Ireland on loan.  Anyhow taking advantage of a wet Sunday, I think I made some progress with old photos from June & July.

In June the Wall Daisies had a lot of these small, orange-bellied solitary bees.  Looking at photos and the guide, I think they can be identified as Patchwork Leaf-cutter Bee (#181), thanks to the extent of orange towards the tail segments. 

The other bee also from June on White Bryony flowers also seems to be a solitary bee.  Based on the amount of hair on the body and leg colour I reckon  it's Yellow-legged Mining Bee (#309).

There's a few other microEden mysteries I need to solve, I'm glad to have worked at least some of them out.