''Andrena barbilabris'', the bearded miner bee, is a species of miner bee in the family

Andrenidae The Andrenidae (commonly known as mining bees) are a large, nearly cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan family of solitary, ground-nesting bees. Most of the family's diversity is located in temperate or arid areas (warm temperate xeric). It i ...

. It is found in Europe and Northern Asia (excluding China) and North America.

Description

The bearded miner bee is commonly around 11 mm in length, the males being smaller and slenderer than the females. The females have rufous hairs on the dorsal surface of the thorax which contrast with the yellower hairs on its sides and head. The males can appear silvery in colour because of the long pale hairs on their thorax. The integument is largely black. It has a narrow head which gives this species a rather hunch-backed appearance.

Distribution

The bearded miner bee has a

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...

distribution, being found across North America in southern Canada and the northern United States. In Eurasia it is distributed from western Europe to

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, into western and eastern

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

to the Russian Far East in

Yakutia Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia, and the largest federal subject of Russia by area. It is located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of one million ...

and

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai, informally known as Primorye, is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krais of Russia, krai) of Russia, part of the Far Eastern Federal District in the Russian Far East. The types of inhabited localities in Russia, ...

and in Japan. In Britain and Ireland it has a patchy, localised distribution as far north as

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

, it is scarcer in Ireland. It also occurs on

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

and

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

in the Channel Islands.

Habitat and ecology

The bearded miner bee has a strong association with light, sandy soils. The male and female bees emerge from their underground cells in the early Spring. Following emergence they mate and the females then search out sites to excavate their nesting burrows. In the burrow, the females dig out small cells within which they place a ball of

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

mixed with

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

. She then lays a single egg on each ball and seals it into its cell. The nest is not obvious and the female relies on her sense of scent to locate the nest. The nest is hidden under a thin layer of sand and the bee digs into the nest in a short time. The flight period of these bees is from March to July and they forage on a wide variety of flowers. Willows are their preferred plant for foraging on and they usually remain within 300m of their nests. These "solitary" bees form small aggregations of nests in loose sandy soil, even nesting between paving stones in gardens. Unlike other bees in the genus ''

Andrena ''Andrena'' is a genus of bees in the family Andrenidae. With over 1,500 species, it is one of the largest genera of animals. It is a strongly Monophyly, monophyletic group that is difficult to split into more manageable divisions; currently, '' ...

'', the presence of the specialized cleptoparasitic bee from the genus '' Sphecodes'', namely '' Sphecodes pellucidus'' often alerts the observer to the presence of its host as it digs into the sand, seeking out the nests of the Bearded Miner Bees.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2695880 barbilabris Articles created by Qbugbot Insects described in 1802 Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN