Photo: SteveK / CC BY-SA 3.0

Andrena fulva

Tawny Mining Bee

One of the most striking spring bees, the female is unmistakable with its dense fox-red hair covering the entire dorsal surface of thorax and abdomen, contrasting with black head and underside. Males are smaller and more brownish with long white facial hairs. It nests in loose aggregations in short lawns, flower beds, and bare soil in gardens, parks, and open grasslands, digging vertical tunnels up to 40 cm deep with a volcano-like tumulus at the entrance. It is polylectic, visiting a wide range of spring-blossoming trees and shrubs including fruit trees, currants, willows, and hawthorn. The cuckoo bee Nomada signata is its specialist brood parasite. In Switzerland it is listed as Least Concern and occurs from the lowlands to montane elevations. Swiss Red List: Least Concern (LC).