It's a Hard Life being a Miner

Tawny mining bees often visit our garden, sometimes feeding on the gooseberry flowers in spring, but I've never managed to find evidence of their nests here. But they must nest somewhere fairly close, because we also receive regular visits from two of their parasites.

Bee-flies lay their eggs near tawny mining bee nests and their larvae crawl down into the underground nest chamber, eat their host's grub and monopolise the store of pollen that the bee lays down for it. Bee-flies are relentlessly active, which means it's almost as difficult to photograph one at rest as one in flight. But this one paused just long enough on the fence to have its photo taken, displaying its furry bee-mimic body and long straight proboscis, used for sucking nectar from deep within flowers.

And this is another enemy of the tawny mining bee, feeding on our forget-me-nots. It's a cuckoo bee (Nomada sp.) - a solitary bee that also behaves like a cuckoo, laying its eggs in bee-fly nest holes where its larva steals its host's pollen supply. Notice that it has few body hairs and no pollen combs and baskets on its legs for collecting pollen to feed its offspring; that's done by the unfortunate tawny mining bee.