The ashy mining bee (''Andrena cineraria''), also known as the Danubian miner or grey mining bee, is a species of sand bee found in Europe. Its distinctive black, grey and white colouring makes it one of the most easily recognized of the genus. They are generally considered safe around children and pets because they're relatively docile, and their stingers aren't long enough to penetrate human skin. They are generalists, they mostly pollinate fruit trees, daisies, buttercups, mustard plants and brambles.

Description and identification

The females are black, with two broad grey hair bands across the

thorax The thorax (: thoraces or thoraxes) or chest is a part of the anatomy of mammals and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main di ...

. The male is also black although the thorax is entirely covered with grey hairs. The male has a tuft of white hairs on the lower face and white hairs on all femora while the female has white hairs only on the front femora. The females have twelve segments to their antennae and the males have thirteen.

Distribution and habitat

The ashy mining bee is common and widespread throughout Europe, ranging from Ireland across central Europe and into Scandinavia. They are common throughout the United Kingdom although less frequent in northern Scotland. They prefer to nest in tended lawns, flowerbeds, parkland,

calcareous grassland Calcareous grassland (or alkaline grassland) is an ecosystem associated with thin basic soil, such as that on chalk and limestone downland. There are large areas of calcareous grassland in northwestern Europe, particularly areas of southern Engla ...

, orchards and on the borders of agricultural land.

Life cycle and nesting

Each female has her own nest and the ashy mining bee is therefore classified amongst solitary bees. The ashy mining bee flies from April until early June, most noticeably during the flowering periods of fruit trees, of which they are an important pollinator. They are also commonly seen hovering just above the ground after mating in spring. Following mating, the male dies and the female starts to build a nest. The nest is a simple burrow with several brood cells branching off it. The entrances to the burrows are identifiable by the conical mounds of excavated soil on the surface. The female fills the brood cells with a mixture of nectar and pollen, and lays one

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

in each cell. The

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

hatches within a few days, grows quickly and

pupa A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages th ...

tes within a few weeks. The

adults An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and ...

emerge the following spring after

hibernation Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic reduction entered by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It is mos ...

. The male emerges before the female. The nests are frequently invaded by cleptoparasitic " cuckoo bees".

References

External links

Video Andrena cineraria
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashy Mining Bee Andrena Hymenoptera of Europe Bees described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus