It should be noted that the name Andrena nana has occasionally been misapplied in the older literature (e.g. Smith, 1855; Saunders, 1896) and in some collections, being a misidentification for A. semilaevis Pérez.
This species is known in Britain from just five records: East Suffolk, Barham (Kirby, 1802), female, the type of the species, collected pre-1802; West Suffolk, Sudbury, 1923, female, B.S. Harwood (Perkins, 1924) (in Natural History Museum, London); West Kent, Luddesdown, 27th August 1899, female, H. Elgar (Felton, 1963) (in Maidstone Museum); West Kent, Eynesford, 27th April, 1930, male (in Natural History Museum, London) and Surrey, Oxshott, July 1915, male, collector not known (in Oxford University Museum). As the most recent record was made more than eighty years ago, it is highly likely that the species is now lost from the British fauna.
This is a Western Palaearctic species, distributed from Sweden and Estonia to Spain, east to Sardinia, Italy, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Also known from North Africa (Morocco to Tunisia) (Osytshnjuk, 1977; Gusenleitner & Schwarz, 2002; Ascher & Pickering, 2012).
Listed in Shirt (1987) as Endangered (RDB1) and revised to “believed extinct” by Falk (1991). This bee is almost certainly extinct as a British species.
No information available.
Bivoltine. The spring brood flies from late April to early June, the summer one from mid July to late August.
In mainland Europe the species nests predominantly in steppe biotopes (Kocourek, 1966).
There are no records for Britain.
No data available.
2018