Bird, bug, butterfly and a wild variety of photos from Belarus, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland and Spain by Irish wildlife photographer Patrick J. O'Keeffe and invited guests

Thursday 18 June 2020

CHOCOLATE MINING BEE (Andrena scotica) Lullymore West Bog, IPCC Nature Reserve, Lullymore, Co. Kildare, Ireland


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Click here for detailed species information
The Chocolate Mining-bee (Andrena scotica) or Hawthorn Bee is of the family Andrenidae which is in the genus Andrena. It occurs in Europe and its range extends from Ireland eastwards to Poland. The flight season is from March to late June, peaking in May. The females are communal nesters with a group of them sharing a common entrance to a burrow in which each female tends her own eggs and larvae within a chamber off the main burrow, constructing brood cells within her tunnel and provisioning the cells with pollen and nectar collected from a wide range of flowers.

Patrick J. O'Keeffe / Raw Birds
 Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrena_scotica