There are currently no published keys to Coelioxys. George Else has a key in preparation. A photographic guide to the genus is available for download from the BWARS website. This species can be confused with C. elongata Lepeletier. It has a black gaster with pale bands and, in the female, elongated sixth tergite and fifth sternite.

BWARS has not yet produced an account for this species.

In recent years it has become apparent that the bee known as B. lucorum (Linnaeus, 1761) is in fact a species complex, containing two other species - B. magnus and B. cryptarum. Separation of the three species is very difficult, so that definitive records for any of the three species are rare. 

A photographic test key by Rowson & Pavett (2008) is available via the BWARS website. Else and Edwards cover Coelioxys in their new book Handbook of the Bees of the British Isles, which is due for publication soon.

A photographic test key by Rowson & Pavett (2008) is available via the BWARS website. Else and Edwards cover Coelioxys in their new book Handbook of the Bees of the British Isles, which is due for publication soon.

There are currently no published keys to Coelioxys. George Else has a key in preparation. A photographic guide to the genus is available for download from the BWARS website. A distinctive group of largely black bees, with the females of most species having a pointed tip to the gaster. This species flies low over the ground looking for its host’s nests, often in a purposeful manner.

BWARS has not yet produced an account for this species, which currently cannot be reliably separated from other species in the Bombus lucorum aggregate.

This large Andrena is one of a group of three (A. fucata Smith, A. helvola (Linnaeus) and A.synadelpha) which are quite similar in appearance, phenology and habitat preferences (all found most often associated with clearings in deciduous woodland during May and June). The males are often seen visiting the flowers of wood spurge, the females at those of hawthorn and field maple. Females of all these species have gasters which sport bands of brown pubescence, differing mostly in the density of the hairs.

This mining bee has both a spring and a summer brood. These differ morphologically, especially in the male (for example, first brood specimens have a strong, conspicuous genal spine which is lacking in summer brood individuals of this sex). In addition, second brood specimens are often more extensively marked with red on the basal tergites and sternites than their spring counterparts. It is possible that these broods are actually distinct species and research, involving the cytogenetics of each brood, is still ongoing. Indeed, the first brood was formerly considered to be a separate… Read more

This is a large, very distinctive bee with the thorax densely clad in snow-white hairs and the metasoma almost glabrous, with sparse black hairs and the integument entirely black and polished.

Records can be submitted online HERE

Identification notes are given below