Photo: Aiwok / CC BY-SA 3.0

Nomada flavoguttata

Small Nomad Bee

One of the smallest Nomada species (5–7 mm), with a black and yellow wasp-like body, orange-red legs, and small yellow spots on the abdomen (flavoguttata means yellow-spotted). It has no pollen-collecting apparatus. It is a cleptoparasite (cuckoo bee) of small Andrena mining bees, especially Andrena minutula and other small Andrena species. Females search for host nests in bare soil, laying eggs in the brood cells where the larva consumes the host's pollen provision. It is bivoltine with two generations per year. In Switzerland it is widespread and common from lowlands to montane elevations in gardens, meadows, and ruderal areas wherever its small Andrena hosts nest, flying from April to September. Swiss Red List: Least Concern (LC).