Beyond the industrious honeybees and charming bumblebees we are so familiar with, there are a vast array of solitary bees to be found in the UK - around 220 of our 250 native bee species are solitary bees! April is a fantastic time to see them, and some of the most conspicuous are our mining bees. You may find a little 'volcano mound' of earth in the lawn, or under flowering trees like hawthorn and apple-evidence of the tawny mining bee (Andrena fulva) creating her nest. She is very distinctive - her abdomen and thorax are covered with a dense ginger fuzz, making her look almost teddy-bear like.
Her mate is far smaller and less distinctive, although you may still be able to identify him by the hairs on his face, which resemble a thick, bushy blond moustache. You might also see the gorgeous ashy mining bee (Andrena cineraria), another fuzzy customer with grey bands on her thorax, and an abdomen which gleams an oily, metallic blue in the spring sunshine. She is especially attentive to the weather, blocking the entrance to her burrow on rainy days. Not all mining bees make conspicuous nests; the chocolate mining bee (Andrena scotica) burrows into firm soils, often around pathways. In our early spring wildflower patch, the only clue to their presence was the bees themselves, drifting to and from an otherwise unremarkable piece of grass.
This story is from the April 2024 edition of Kitchen Garden.
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This story is from the April 2024 edition of Kitchen Garden.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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