Bryony Mining Bee

Appearance

Medium-sized bee with reddish markings or bands at the base of the abdomen, much like some A. rosae and trimmerana but with shiny, punctate tergites and better developed flocci. The hind tibiae and tarsi are completely dark-haired.
Males resemble slim females and have antennal segment 3 longer than 4 (segment 2 much shorter than 3 in similar looking males of rosae and trimmerana).

Naming

Fabricius, 1793

Distribution

Found throughout much of Europe, from Denmark and The Netherlands, south to Spain and east to Russia. It also occurs in north Africa.
In Britain it is confined to southern England, where it is known from the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, East Sussex, West Sussex, Surrey, Middlesex, Kent and Essex. There is a number of old unsubstantiated records of this species from Cornwall, Devon, and Suffolk.

Status

Status (in Britain only)
Listed as Rare (RDB3) in Shirt (1987) and by Falk (1991).

Behavior

This species is one of the very few bees that, in Britain, visits only a single flower species for pollen, though it will fly to unrelated species for nectar.

Habitat

Most sites for the species are on sandy soils, including the edges of heathland, parkland, open clearings and the margins of woodland, and roadside verges.

Reproduction

This is a typical mining bee, the nest burrows being excavated in the soil. Both single nest burrows and large aggregations of burrows have been encountered on heathland and along paths through woodland. The nest architecture is unknown.

Food

Narrowly oligolectic on Bryonia. In Britain it is restricted to White Bryony (Bryonia dioica), and as such, is the sole British Andrena which is restricted to a single plant species for pollen. However, in Germany the females additionally forage from the flowers of a closely related species, Bryonia alba and in Crete females have been observed visiting Bryonia cretica.