The Red-shanked carder bee resembles a smaller, rounder, version of the common and widespread Red-tailed bumble bee, Bombus lapidarius, but has red hairs (not all black) on the corbicula. Keys and general biology are found in Sladen (1912), Free & Butler (1959), Alford (1975) and Prŷs-Jones & Corbet (1991).

A medium-sized mining bee, the largest member of the Andrena minutula species-group (subgenus Micrandrena).

Keys and general biology are found in Sladen (1912), Free & Butler (1959), Alford (1975) and Prŷs-Jones & Corbet (1991). Until recently this species was known as Psithyrus barbutellus, but Psithyrus has now been reduced to a sub-genus within Bombus. It bears a close resemblance to its host, Bombus hortorum, but has an almost circular face, most unlike the very elongated one of B. hortorum.

This species has also been known as S. ruficrus (Erichson) and S. rufiventris (Panzer), but both were misidentifications.

Both sexes can be identified by their yellow-marked faces and shrill hum. The male has pale green eyes in life, though this is a purely ephemeral character, the eyes becoming brownish-black after death.

An unusual Anthophora species, which excavates its nest burrows in rotten wood, rather than in the soil. Unusually for Anthophora the mandible is tridentate, with both an inner and outer subapical tooth.