Solitary Bee ID Help Please?

[British Red]

I have a number of these solitary bees in the garden - doing a great job on the cherry blossom. Can anyone help me with a positive ID? They are somewhat shorter and much more slender than a honey bee







TIA

Red

 

[Clouston98]

Hiya mate, not an expert but I had a search around and to me it looks like it could be a Andrena carantonica (google throws up images), looks nothing like the bees in our hives obviously but does look the ones in your pictures .

 

[British Red]

Could be...the one in our garden was more slender than most of the images. I have Collins British Insects in front of me...but I can't be positive on the ID

 

[Harvestman]

I could go with Andrena, but they are a difficult group to separate, and I'm not skilled in them.

You can have a bash at identifying it here if you like, but I wish you luck.

 

[British Red]

I could go with Andrena, but they are a difficult group to separate, and I'm not skilled in them.

You can have a bash at identifying it here if you like, but I wish you luck.

Yep - I give up

 

[Harvestman]

Hiya mate, not an expert but I had a search around and to me it looks like it could be a Andrena carantonica (google throws up images), looks nothing like the bees in our hives obviously but does look the ones in your pictures .

This looks like a decent shout, but I'm going to pass your image to someone who knows these bees, if that's ok with you Hugh?

 

[British Red]

Oh yes please mate - higher res versions in the usual spot

 

[Harvestman]

Done. I will await an answer.

 

[British Red]

Thank You

 

[Harvestman]

My contact reckons your bee is the Early Mining Bee, Andrena haemorrhoa, and I don't know enough to disagree with him.

 

[British Red]

I have seen evidence of miner bees around so that makes sense - thank you and please thank your friend for me

 

[Harvestman]

Glad to be of help (especially since someone else did the difficult bit )