Red mason bee
(Osmia bicornis)
Red mason bees are common and familiar throughout most of the UK. They get their name from their habit of nesting in cavities between brickwork, although they also happily use solitary bee hotels too. Females may be seen harvesting mud to seal up their nest cells, inside which their young develop over the following year.
Commonly found in urban areas, especially gardens and parks, they nest in sunny south-facing locations. This includes cracks in mortar joints, window frames, air bricks, as well as natural cavities in bramble stems, dead wood and soil banks. They feed on many spring flowering garden plants as well as shrubs and trees, especially apples and pears.
Red mason bees are active from late March until June and are common throughout much of the UK, especially in lowland urban environments across England and Wales. Records extend to central Scotland up into Perthshire. They have been recently found in Ireland too.
Credit: Bex Cartwright
Females are fairly easy to recognise. They have black hair on their box-shaped heads and distinctive inward curved horns, which are not seen in any other British species. They have brown-haired thoraxes which can look quite sparse in the centre, and orange-haired abdomens.
Males are similar to females, although they are slimmer and have white hair on their faces. Their antennae are noticeably longer and can appear spindly. The orange on the abdomen can also be very bright.
For more information about this species visit the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society.
