Mining bees and cuckoo bees

Even more bee activity in the garden. Also outside on the pavement. Just outside our front wall I observed a solitary mining bee Andrena thoracica entering a nest burrow in between the paving stones.

The bee is constructing a nest where it will lay eggs that will develop into next years adults.

You can just see the abdomen as it disappears down into its tunnel.

I also observed the first red mason bee (another solitary species) as it rested on a bucket in the garden.

I also observed this small wasp-like insect which is also a bee. This is one of many types of cuckoo bee which as their name suggests lays there eggs in the nests of other bee species.

The wasp-like cuckoo bees belong to a group called Nomada. This one appears to be Nomada’s lathbriana.

Cuckoo bees tend to parasitise a particular species, this one lays its eggs in the nests of another solitary bee  Andrena cineraria