LionelBI have posted others of this recently but this is such a beautiful photo. This Hairy-footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes) is feeding on white horse chestnut flowers.
Another solitary bee. This is a Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis).
This is another nomad bee, even more strikingly beautiful. It is Nomada goodeniana.
A Flavous Nomad Bee (Nomada flava). This is a cuckoo bee which utilises the nests and food stores of Andrena bees. They glide fast and low, giving the impression of a glowing orange sphere.
I bought a pack of kiln dried birch logs (Home Bargains in UK) and picked out the thicker blocks to make a bee house. They are fussy about depth, so I needed auger bits for greater reach. The excavations are around 12cm deep.
Sarah ArnoldNow it feels like spring, and there are flowers and plenty of #SolitaryBees. The spring Andrenas are some of my most beloved bees - they're a sign of things getting warmer and brighter. They're also great #pollinators of wildflowers, and various crops such as #apple #strawberry #pear etc.
(IDs, I think: Andrena dorsata, Andrena flavipes, Andrena fulva, Andrena scotica - all common UK spring generalist species.)
These move around rapidly, so this was a lucky shot. It is a male Hairy-footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes). Here you can clearly see the hair on its legs and the very long snout. It is drinking nectar from Teucrium in my garden. For that it needs a long tongue, as the flower is tubular. The photo also shows the mechanism for dangling pollen, so that it brushes onto the hairs on the back of the bee.
neville parkNew Ant Lab about GROUND BEEEEEEES (_Andrena_, _Colletes_, _Nomada_) https://youtu.be/jje1LPrsHbc
#bugstodon #insects #bees #NativeBees #SolitaryBees #Hymenoptera #Anthophila #Andrenidae #Colletidae #Apidae
Bees That Come Out of the Ground?!
The parasitic bees have timed it just right. This is almost certainly Nomada flava but it has a couple of near identical cousins.
In flight, they are like a fast moving amber sphere.
They are after Andrena bee nests.
I found just one of these, on a dandelion. It was on a mission. It lays its eggs on the larvae of the Hairy-footed Flower Bee, so it has followed them here. It can't feed on the comfrey but it is here because the comfrey is here! It is a Common Mourning Bee (Melecta albifrons).
