Bees and bugs: Clarke’s mining bee
The females of Clarke’s mining bee (Andrena clarkella), when freshly emerged, have a striking colour pattern – bright orange hairs on the thorax, contrasting with a black face and abdomen. The hind tibiae are pale, with bright orange pollen-hairs. As usual with mining bees, the males are rather less eye-catching, with yellowish to orange-brown coats. The bee is widespread throughout Britain, and can be found on heaths and moors, as well as sandpits and open woodland.
The bee is one of the earliest to emerge in the spring – from the beginning of March, and sometimes as early as mid-February. This coincides with the flowering of willows (Salix spp.), and they can often be seen collecting pollen from sallow catkins.
In woodland they often make their nests in soil among buttress roots of trees or in root plates of fallen trees, and their flight period is drawing to a close by the time the canopy closes over. In these sites the bee nests in quite small aggregations, but in open ground there are reports of as many as 2,000 nesting close together.
Photo: Andrena clarkella covering a nest entrance
Common bee-flies (Bombylius major), a parasitic fly (Leucophora obtusa) and the cuckoo bee (Nomada leucopthalma) are among the insects that threaten the underground larvae of this mining bee, but it has an interesting method of resistance.
Photo: Leucophora backs into nest from photo 1
At a woodland site near to my home, I have been able to observe a remarkable behaviour typical of this bee during the last two or three springs.
When the female leaves her nest on a foraging flight, she carefully shuffles soil particles over the entrance, so disguising it. But she also has a nearby ‘fake’ or decoy entrance hole which remains open. This distracts nest parasites, while the bee digs down into its true nest. Unfortunately for the bee, this is not entirely foolproof, as I watched a Leucophora (satellite fly) dig its way backwards into a disguised nest.
Photos: Ted Benton
Ted Benton
Ted Benton is emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Essex, where he has pioneered the integration of ecological understanding with social theory. He has been an active field naturalist since childhood, and is author or co-author of eight books on entomological topics, in addition to his academic publications and a recent book on Alfred Russel Wallace. His two books in the New Naturalist series (Bumblebees (2006) and Grasshoppers and Crickets (2012)) have both been highly praised. He is hon. President of Colchester Natural History Society, a founder member of the Red-Green Study Group and is involved in environmental campaigning.
