A Common Solitary Bee

I was out searching for Green Hairstreaks again at Roughdown on Monday. Spotted 4 but also came across one of the solitary bee species present on site. I think this one is Andrena nitida.

The main ID features are the “bright, foxy-brown hair on the thorax and a polished black abdomen (see insert A). Females have thin apical side-bars of white pubescence on abdominal segments 1-3 (just visible in insert C), and males have copious white facial hair, especially on the clypeus.” This is a female so minimal facial hair (insert B).

It likes open grassland habitat and doesn’t need or prefer bare earth sites for nests. It’s fairly common throughout southern Britain and present from April until June.

I did note a Nomada species fairly close by but didn't get a good enough view. These are "cuckoo bees" targeting the nest sites of Andrena mining bee species. Like Cuckoos, they don’t bother to create their own nests and provide for their young. Instead, they parasitise the nests of mining bees, laying their eggs in the “cells provisioned by the host bee. When the cuckoo bee larva hatches it consumes the host larva's pollen ball, and, if the female kleptoparasite has not already done so, kills and eats the host larva.” Nice!

A bit late adding this observation but, along with the other more common butterfly species now emerging, a male Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) was also around Lower Roughdown last Thursday 23rd.