The Ashy Mining Bee - Andrena cineraria
06th April 2012
In: April 2012

Both sexes are black, the males (image left) having grey/white hairs on their thorax and a thick tuft of white hairs on the lower face. The females are a little larger with two grey/white hairs bands across the thorax and some white hairs on the face. They are on the wing from early April to early June and are often found in gardens, nesting in lawns. They create their nest burrows in the ground, producing little volcano-like piles of excavated soil. Other Mining Bees do this too, though.

Females (like other Andrenas) also have twelve segments to their antennae and males thirteen. These can be difficult to count though.
See larger images of Andrena cineraria in the Photo Gallery here.
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