Gwynne's Mining Bee

**UPDATED**

I saved this hairy little bee from a bucket of water today. Not a rare find, but I was pleased with the photos so have added to this post from a couple of years ago.

It’s a solitary bee and emerges in the Spring and enjoys pollen from a wide variety of early flowers. It was happy with a grape hyacinth to dry out on.

March 2021

I originally identified this as a Yellow-legged mining bee, however my friend thought it was more likely a Gwynn’s Mining Bee, because of the face colour being darker, and received confirmation from the BWARS forum. It is a female Andrena bicolor.

I spent a while trying to identify this little bee that was in the polytunnel. I could see that the legs were coloured yellow rather than stained with pollen, but the hairiness was leading me down a wrong id path (which I still got wrong originally!)

The Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society is a very useful website and has confirmed that this is a female because of the thickness of her leg hairs.

Andrena bicolor is not a rare bee, but still nice to see a different one amongst the bumblebees yesterday.