Wight Bumblees: The Yellow-legged Mining Bee.

Tuesday 22 March 2016

The Yellow-legged Mining Bee.

A common spring solitary bee is Andrena flavipes or the Yellow-legged Mining Bee.It is numerous in Southern England and I came across several individuals yesterday on south facing chalk cliffs.

Andrena flavipes nests are constructed in the ground, and are often found in dense aggregations in suitable,exposed banks and cliffs, tended lawns, flower beds, roadside verges and in sparsely vegetated field margins.
In most areas where the bee is found, this Yellow-legged Mining Bee plays host to the cuckoo bee Nomada fucata.

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In the UK there are twenty four species of bumblebee but only eight are commonly found in most places.Bumblebees occupy a variety of habitats and most of us should be able to attract them to our gardens if we have the right kinds of flowering plants.

On the Isle of Wight eleven species have been recorded including the eight ommon ones which are Tree,Garden,Heath,Red-tailed,White-tailed,Common Carder,Early,and Buff-tailed.There are also records of three much less encountered species,the Field Cuckoo,the Vestal Cuckoo, and the Hill Cuckoo.

These latter three are parasitic bumblebees that lay their eggs in other species nests and then kill the resident queen.The occupants of the nest then rear the cuckoos' offspring unaware that it is not their own species.

There are over two hundred species of solitary bee in the UK and most can be very difficult to tell apart.

They are so named because they do not live in colonies, unlike bumblebees and honeybees.Their nests range from hollow plant stems to holes in cliffs,walls,and in the ground.

All solitary bees are first class pollinators and should be made welcome in our gardens.

Title Photo

Tuesday 22 March 2016

The Yellow-legged Mining Bee.

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