This Andrena is a very widespread, spring-flying species. Females are very distinctive, with a bright, foxy-coloured covering of hairs on the thorax and a similarly-coloured tuft of hairs at the tip of the abdomen, which is otherwise almost completely hairless and shining black. In common with most other Andrena the males are much less distinctive. However, close examination with a hand lens will reveal a dark brown spot in the middle of the otherwise orange-brown hind tibia. The thorax in fresh examples is also covered in foxy-coloured hairs, but these are much less… Read more

This small, shining, reddish-yellow to brown ant is the only known European representative of its genus. It resembles Leptothorax and Temnothorax species, to which it is closely related. Females, and the wingless males, are worker-like in appearance, whilst individuals morphologically intermediate between females and workers also occur. Formicoxenus nitidulus is a ‘guest ant’, living only within the nest mounds of its ant hosts. These are usually ‘wood ants’ (Formica subgenus Formica sens. str.). Known hosts in Britain are F. aquilonia… Read more