Photo: Arnstein Staverløkk / NINA / CC BY 3.0

Nomada ruficornis

Fork-jawed Nomad Bee

A medium-sized cleptoparasitic (cuckoo) bee (8–11 mm) with a brown and yellow-striped wasp-like body, orange legs, and distinctive bifid (forked) mandibles. It has no pollen-collecting apparatus. It parasitises the nests of Andrena haemorrhoa, and is also associated with other spring-flying Andrena species. Females search for host nests in bare soil, laying their eggs in the brood cells where the larva consumes the host's pollen provision. In Switzerland it is widespread in gardens, meadows, and forest edges wherever its hosts nest, flying from April to June. Swiss Red List: Least Concern (LC).