Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Mystery Miner

I found several of these mining bees feeding on dandelion flowers yesterday. I think that brush of hairs on the hind legs, used for collecting pollen and sweeping soil out of the nest tunnels, narrows it down to an Andrena species but I'm not sure which one it is .............any advice?
at

6 comments:

  1. RobApril 19, 2012 at 11:53 AM

    I'm the world's worst Andrena-ologist but I've seen something similar on the IoW which is pencilled in as Andrena nigroaenea. Pretty fluffy, brushy hind legs etc.
    mention rolling around in pollen!
    Most of my Andrena's end up being Andrena sp!

    ReplyDelete
  2. PhilApril 19, 2012 at 12:22 PM

    Thanks Rob, I've seen that one mentioned on a web site - will check it out...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pete SmithApril 20, 2012 at 2:38 PM

    Hi Phil,

    I'm no expert either but another similar Andrena is Andrena Clarkella.

    I only know this as I went through a similar excersise trying to identify a mining bee I had found burrowing in sand and tentatively came up with that one.

    In fact I am about to do a blog post about it when I get a chance

    Pete

    ReplyDelete
  4. PhilApril 20, 2012 at 7:05 PM

    Thanks Pete, I find bee identification pretty bewildering - will look out for you post! Cheers, Phil

    ReplyDelete
  5. AlisonApril 29, 2012 at 9:52 AM

    After seeing the results you get from your pentax I was inspired to buy my own. Thankyou for explaining which camera you used that day. I have a Pentax WG1 I
    love the microscope mode.I have been useing a Cannon EOS 50D with a macro lense and struggling a bit. Thank you
    Alison

    ReplyDelete
  6. PhilApril 30, 2012 at 1:13 PM

    Hi Alison, it took me a while to really familiarise myself with the camera's capabilities, but once I did it became my favourite camera...

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.