Yellow-legged Mining Bee
Andrena flavipes
The Yellow-legged Mining Bee is a solitary wild bee characterized by distinct pale hair bands on its abdomen and yellowish-red hairs on its hind legs. It is bivoltine, producing two generations per year – one in spring and one in summer. As a generalist species, it visits a wide variety of flowering plants and often nests in large aggregations within self-dug soil burrows.
Details
Identification
Abdomen with dense, whitish-yellow hair bands; females with reddish-yellow scopa on hind tibiae; thorax dorsum covered in brown hair.
Social behavior
Solitary, but frequently forms very large nesting aggregations (colonies) at favorable sites.
Diet
Polylectic; utilizes pollen from over 10 plant families, including Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Rosaceae, and Salicaceae.
Spawning substrate
Sunny, sparsely vegetated areas with sandy or loamy soil.
Overwintering
The second generation overwinters as a fully developed adult (imago) within the underground brood cell.
Ecology
Ecological role
Important pollinator for a variety of wild and cultivated plants during spring and summer.
Natural predators
Cuckoo bees (e.g., Nomada fucata), bee flies, predatory beetle larvae, and birds.
Competitor species
Other ground-nesting bee species when competing for nesting sites or limited food resources.
Ecosystem service
Ensuring the reproduction of numerous plant species through pollination in gardens, meadows, and agricultural landscapes.
Threats
Surface sealing, loss of fallow land, intensive pesticide use, and frequent mowing of flowering areas.
Scientific profile
Profile
Distinguishing features
Andrena flavipes is distinguished by double hair bands on tergites 2 to 4 (a narrow basal band and a wide apical band), though basal bands may often be worn off. The apical bands are always very distinct and continuous. The terminal fringe (anal fimbria) in females is light brown to yellowish.
Habitat
Highly adaptable: dry grasslands, sand and clay pits, forest edges, gardens, parks, and even urban areas on paved paths with joints.
Protection & threats
Main threats
Soil sealing in urban areas, intensive agriculture (pesticide use), loss of bare soil patches due to scrub encroachment or dense vegetation.
Population trend
Stable; the species is considered one of the most common and widespread Andrena species in Germany and Central Europe.
Conservation measures
Promotion of flower strips, preservation of bare soil patches in gardens and parks, avoidance of insecticides, protection of sand pits from being filled.