Now 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.

#insects #solitarybees #bees

New Ant Lab about GROUND BEEEEEEES (_Andrena_, _Colletes_, _Nomada_) https://youtu.be/jje1LPrsHbc

#bugstodon #insects #bees #NativeBees #SolitaryBees #Hymenoptera #Anthophila #Andrenidae #Colletidae #Apidae

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.

#solitarybees #bees #insects

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).

#bees #solitarybees #insects

This is a Hairy-footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes). It is abundant around these flowers, which are actually an invasive dwarf comfrey from the Mediterranean. This is a female, black all over apart from a tiny patch of orange on the back legs. It is not a bumblebee. It has a very long snout.

#bees #solitarybees #insects

This is an Orange-tailed Mining Bee (Andrena haemorrhoa). It is similar to the first bee in the orange glow of the shoulder fur but the body is bare and grey except at the end, where there is a tuft of orange hairs.

#bees #solitarybees #insects

A rather spectacular day for solitary bees today. This beautiful insect is a Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva) just emerged and in glowing colours.

#bees #insects #solitarybees

My anger right now is righteous. So instead, have some bees.

#solitarybees #pollinators #insectsarecool