Andrena (Melandrena) nigroaenea (Kirby, 1802)

Back to Britain again for a bit, and you may (or more likely, may not) remember this bee-filled post celebrating a ban on neonicotinoids, and a promise to create individual posts for each species, eventually?

Well, here's the beginning of that fulfilment.

Photographed in March, 2012, in Bosham, West Sussex, UK, using an Olympus E-420 DSLR with a 40-150mm lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

This rather furry little bee should be

Andrena (Melandrena) nigroaenea

(Kirby, 1802)

But it is worth noting that Andrena (and the associated cuckoo bees in Nomada) are notoriously troubling to identify.

- Andreninae 

- Andrenidae    

- Anthophila        

- Apoidea               

See also Astata tropicalis

- Aculeata                 

See also Vespula germanica and Synagris proserpina.

- Apocrita                     

- Hymenoptera                

- Hymenopterida                

- Endopterygota                    

See also Crambus pascuella, Hagenomyia tristis, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasiini, Malachius bipustulatus, Melolontha melolontha, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Zebronia phenice, Laelia robusta, Anthocharis cardamines, Acada biseriata Panorpa germanica, Megistocera filipes, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Episyrphus balteatus, Helophilus pendulus, Diasemopsis meigenii and Dolichotachina caudata

- Eumetabola                                  

See also Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes and Ranatra

- Neoptera                                          

See also  Sibylla, Stictogryllacris punctata, Lobosceliana loboscelis and Cyathosternum prehensile

- Manopterygota                                     

See also Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni and Enallagma cyathigerum

- Pterygota                                                  

- Dicondylia                                                  

- Insecta                                                            

- Hexapoda                                                           

- Arthropoda                                                            

See also Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi and Hyllus argyrotoxus.

- Ecdysozoa                                                                 

- Protostomia                                                                  

- Nephrozoa                                                                      

See also Burhinus vermiculatus, Chiromantis xerampelina, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo, Synchiropus splendidus and Hipposideros vittatus.

- Bilateralia                                                                            

- Eumetazoa                                                                              

- Animalia                                                                                     

- Eukaryota                                                                                      

Although protected in Ireland, this largeish and early-flying bee seems to be quite common in the South of England. As with all Andrena, they are solitary bees, and - at least in the case of this emergent individual, nests are built on raised banks with some bare soil but reasonable shelter.




As a word on solitary bees, it is worth noting that they cannot rely on a sister to raise their young, and so value their own lives considerably higher than the social bees (notably Apis and Bombus), and even those relatively few species that are capable of stinging tend to be much less willing to do so.

Their role in pollination is often overlooked, as the widely introduced honeybee (Apis mellifera), with reproductive individuals represented by colonies of thousands, tends to dominate the bee fauna during summer periods, and has in many places displaced or at least damaged the populations of native bees, but many of the solitary bees that remain are relatively specialist, arriving early or late in the year, when the weather forces the (originally tropical) honeybee to stay indoors, and therefore are important pollinators to many spring and autumn flowering plants.



And that's all, folks!






For identification and distribution on UK hymenoptera in general, one fantastic resource is BWARS