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

One of the largest Andrena species in Britain. It is a uniformly brown bee with reddish yellow hind legs, especially noticeable in females, where the yellow scopal hairs accentuate this colouring. It belongs to the group with a raised crest around the rear of the propodeum; this can often be seen with a hand-lens when examining specimens in the net. Males may be found patrolling along hedge-lines and around isolated bushes, flying at about head height, presumably searching for newly-emerged females.

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 species was formerly known by the name Andrena saundersella (Perkins, 1914), now treated as a synonym of semilaevis Pérez.

One of the smaller Andrena species, similar in size to the widespread A. bicolor Fabricius. It is unusual in being a northern species, and probably because of this its biology is rather poorly known, historically there being fewer people interested in aculeates in the northern parts of these islands.

This species is the commoner of the two formerly known as A. pilipes or A. carbonaria. It has a double flight period, unlike its close relative A. nigrospina Thomson. Modern records of A. pilipes sens. str. are mostly coastal, where it can be quite frequent and certainly very obvious. Why this should be is not clear as it visits a wide range of plants for their flowers.

A fairly large Andrena, comparable in size with A. scotica Perkins, but patterned more like A. fulvago (Christ) with darker wings. It has only been recorded in Britain on a few occasions: by F Smith in the middle of the nineteenth century, and subsequently with a number of records in the early 1900s and again in the 1930s. All these records relate to that part of Kent north of Maidstone, so it may well have been a species with several short-lived invasions, but which failed to become more widely established.

A member of the subgenus Taeniandrena, represented in Britain by four species, A. ovatula is a very close relative of A. wilkella (Kirby) and is easily confused with that species, especially in the field. The two species are perhaps most readily distinguished in both sexes by the entire hair band on the third gastral tergite of A. ovatula (medially interrupted in A. wilkella)

One of the larger Andrena species, with a generally dark brown abdomen and contrasting orange hairs on the hind legs and thorax. This species is one of the first to emerge in the spring, males often flying rapidly over areas of bare ground or sitting on dandelion flowers. Since the mid-1990s however, an increasing number of confirmed records of freshly emerged specimens in July point to the presence of a partial (at least) second generation. Whether this has become possible with the increase in duration of higher temperatures for a longer period in our summer is a moot point.… Read more