Mining Bees

Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes.  Male by an occupied hole.  Keston Common, 29 March 2012.

I went back to the spot where I saw a Cuckoo-bee two days earlier. Near the stand of Gorse where I saw that bee is some hard, flat, sandy ground, well walked upon, which is ideal home territory for mining bees. Movement low down caught my eye, and I was pleased to see several bees flying low to the ground. Then I looked around and pleasure became wonder as I saw that there were several hundred individuals, all in the same small area.

They seemed to be males, and I was pretty sure that they were Andrena flavipes, confirmed later when I saw a female with the distinctive tuft of hair on the back leg, used for collecting pollen.

This I.D. ties in with the Cuckoo-bee I had seen nearby, which was of a species that parasitises this particular bee. I caught glimpses of two more Cuckoo-bees flying among these mining bees, but was unable to get a photo as some passers-by were asking me about the bees at the time!

Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes.  Three males and a female in a rather busy mating attempt.

When I did see a female, a male arrived almost immediately and tried to mate. Very quickly, more males arrived. In this photo, there are two on the female and a third is flying up.

Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes.  A bundle of males and one female.

At this point I don't think the mating is going very well. But at least you can clearly see the tuft of yellow hair on the female's back leg.