Andrena vaga male by Mike Ball.jpg
Andrena vaga female by Mike Ball.jpg
Else & Edwards Understandings Reference
Else & Edwards Understandings Reference
A new draft key to the Pompilidae (spider-hunting wasps) by Graham Collins and also a link to the Pompilidae section of Steven Falk's Flickr site are on the Identification guides page.
A new, downloadable, draft key to the Pompilidae (spider-hunting wasps) plus a link to the Pompilidae section of Steven Falk's Flickr site has been added to the Identification guides page
Andrena russula
Andrena similis Smith,1849, Andrena croceiventris Morawitz, 1871, Andrena rufo-hispida Dours, 1872, Andrena stefanii Pérez, 1895, Andrena ocreata cyprisina Warncke, 1975, Andrena (Taeniandrena) similis caraimica Osytshnjuk, 1994
This mining bee has been renamed from Andrena similis Smith,1849, it is a close relative of Andrena wilkella (Kirby), with which it could easily be confused. However, it differs from that species in having the postscutellum, and the lateral and posterior margins of the scutellum clad with very dense, short, erect, reddish-orange hairs. In addition the posterior hair-band of the third gastral tergite is very widely broken. In A.
The distribution extends from southern England north to Yorkshire and in Wales and again in northern Scotland. However, there are apparently no records from much of northern England and southern Scotland. Note the concentration of records in the vicinity of the Cromarty and Dornoch Firths. The species is not known from Ireland or the Channel Islands.
The species is widely distributed in the western Palaearctic, from southern Sweden and Finland south to northern Morocco, Algeria and Libya, east to Kazakhstan, the Middle East (Gusenleitner & Schwarz, 2002) and Afghanistan (Dylewska, 1987). The nominate form occurs throughout its European range, with the exception of southern Italy and Sicily, where it is replaced by A. similis croceiventris Morawitz.
Falk (1991) lists this species as Notable B (now known as Nationally Scarce Nb).
Throughout much of southern Britain this is a rare and very local bee but occurs in various habitats, including chalk grassland, moorland and rough coastal landslips. M Macdonald (pers. comm.) describes the bee as being quite common along forest rides in northern Scotland.
Univoltine; late April to the end of June.
Apparently oligolectic on Fabaceae (Westrich, 1989). In Britain, a female has been observed collecting pollen from a gorse flower.
Perkins (1919) reports the species as sometimes nesting in large, compact aggregations. Dylewska (1987) states that in mainland Europe the species nests singly.
Willow (sallow), aubretia, bilberry, pear, hawthorn, common bird’s-foot-trefoil, gorse, clover, sycamore, bogbean, ground-ivy and speedwell.
No Nomada has been associated with this mining bee. Specimens are very rarely stylopised, apparently by Stylops alfkeni (Perkins, 1919, 1943; Kinzelbach, 1971).
2012 - name changed 2024
Bibliography Lost and Found
The bibliography that was on the BWARS site up to June 2023 has sadly been lost. Fortunately an archived copy exists and can be accessed from a link on the Bibliography page via the Resources menu.
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Bibliography
The bibliography that was on the BWARS site up to June 2023 has sadly been lost. Fortunately an archived copy exists and can be accessed from the following link.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230607053003/https://www.bwars.com/biblio
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