This is often the first solitary species of bee to be found in the spring, sometimes flying in mid February. As with many of the early spring bees, A. clarkella forages almost exclusively from sallow blossom.

This species is one of the very few bees that, in Britain, visits only a single flower species for pollen, though it will fly to unrelated species for nectar.

In common with Andrena hattorfiana, the females of A. marginata occur in different colour forms. There are three such morphs in A. marginata: tergites mainly black or blackish-brown (resembling coloration of males); tergites 2-5 of gaster entirely (or almost entirely) pale orange (female of this form figured by Westrich (1989)); and an intermediate form in which the gastral tergites have orange and black bands. The very dark form is apparently dominant in south-west England and in… Read more

Unique among British bees in carrying at least part of the pollen load in a shallow depression on the lower part of the face, the depression being bounded on each side by a usually prominent blunt process (hence the origin of its specific name).

A recent addition to the list of European bees, being described as new to science in 1993. Previously this bee had been misidentified as both Colletes halophilus and C. succinctus by various authors. It is very closely related to both of these species, especially C. halophilus.

Link to Colletes hederae mapping project … Read more

This species was formerly misidentified by British authors as H. leucomelana (Kirby, 1802) (see Yarrow, 1970).

Previously Osmia rufa (Panzer,1806). This species has gained a notorious reputation from the females' habit of excavating their nesting burrows and cells in crumbling or soft mortar joints, thereby, in time, undermining and possibly weakening the fabric of masonry. The bee also utilises existing holes. It is colloquially known as the red mortar bee or red mason bee.