Identifying Bees of the UK - Tawny Mining Bee

Identifying Bee of the UK

Tawny Mining Bee Andrena fulva

Callum Brooks

Above: Tawny Mining Bee ©HWall/Shutterstock

Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva)

Sometimes you don’t need to travel great distances to explore exciting wildlife and the Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva) is a perfect example of that, as this species can be encountered right on your doorstep! These solitary bees are commonly encountered in gardens and they even leave evidence behind for you to discover, as their nest building produces ‘volcano like’ mounds which are often found across garden lawns. Aside from urban environments, this species also occurs in a wide range of habitats, which include grasslands, pastures and woodland. Their range is typically associated with southern Britain and the Channel Islands, however in recent years they’ve expanded northwards into parts of Scotland.

When it comes to identifying a Tawny Mining Bee, the females of this species are much easier to identify than the males, in fact they’re one of the easier solitary bees to recognise. The females are similar in size to a Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) and they have dense reddish/orange hairs across their thorax and the abdomen, which gives their coat a tawny like appearance. This also explains why their scientific name includes ‘fulva’, as this is the Latin word for tawny. The males are harder to identify, as are smaller and brownish in colour and they have fewer distinguishing features. One species that can be confused with the Tawny Mining Bee is the Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis), as they’re also covered in red/orange hairs. However, unlike the Tawny Mining Bee this species has two noticeable horns on its face.

The Tawny Mining Bee is univoltine (produces one brood of eggs in a season) and it’s one of the first solitary bees to emerge in the year. It can be seen on the wing anywhere from March to June and this usually coincides with the flowering of its favourite fruit trees, such as apple and pear. Despite, favouring fruit trees, this species is also polylectic and the females will collect pollen and nectar for its larvae from a variety of herbs, shrubs, and trees. Important sources of pollen and nectar for this species include beech (Fagus sylvatica), buttercup (Ranunculus sp.) and sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus).

The Tawny Mining Bee builds its nests individually (unlike social species, such as bumblebees), but large numbers of these nests can congregate in a single area, which gives the impression of social activity. As you’d expect from their name, this mining bee digs their nest into the ground, and this provides a safe place to lay their eggs and allow young bees to develop before emerging the following spring. The soil which has been excavated by these bees forms the ‘volcano like’ mounds or ‘tumulus’, which people often discover on their lawns. Whilst, this may be undesirable for any keen gardeners, it’s also important to note that these nests do not damage the lawn. In fact, after a couple of weeks these mounds will disappear by themselves and so there is no need to destroy them. These nests can also be visited by the Large Bee-fly (Bombylius major), which is a parasitic species of the Tawny Mining Bee and it’ll flick its eggs into the nest, which then hatch and consume the pollen stored inside, as well as any other young solitary bees.

Callum Brooks. September 2021.

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