Tawny mining bee
(Andrena fulva)
Tawny mining bees are one of the most recognisable spring-flying solitary bees with dense orangey red hair, although the males are not as striking or noticeable as the females. These mining bees can be found nesting in large groups and can be common in urban environments and garden lawns.
They are commonly found in gardens, parks, and the wider countryside where they create nest tunnels along south-facing embankments with sparse or short vegetation, including lawns. They feed on a wide variety of flowers including buttercups, dandelions, hawthorn, blackthorn, maple, willows and fruit trees.
Tawny mining bees are active from March to June. They are common throughout most of southern Britain with increasing records in central Scotland, and a few from Ireland too.
Credit: Annie Ives
Females are roughly the same size as honeybees with thick red/orange hair on the thorax and long, dense and slightly lighter orange hair on the abdomen. Their legs, faces and undersides are all black-haired.
Males are a bit harder to identify. They are smaller and thinner than the females, their hair is browner and not quite as dense. They have protruding jaws, although can be difficult to distinguish from several other similar looking mining bees without close inspection.
For more information about this species visit the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society.
