Yellow-legged mining bee, Andrena flavipes, a banded mining bee with pale-haired hind legs

Andrena flavipes, the yellow-legged mining bee. Fritz Geller-Grimm, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Andrena flavipes | Mining bee Two generations a year Spreading north Ground-nesting

UK Bee Species

Yellow-legged Mining Bee (Andrena flavipes)

Andrena flavipes Panzer, 1799 · family Andrenidae

The yellow-legged mining bee is one of the most successful solitary bees in southern Britain, a neat, banded mining bee that nests in huge aggregations on sunny banks and lawns. It is also a keystone for other insects: it is the host of the painted nomad bee and a mainstay for the dotted bee-fly. Unusually for a British mining bee, it raises two generations a year. See where it fits among Britain's bees on the UK Native Bee Species Map, or among the world's bees in the World Bee Atlas.

Quick Facts

Common nameYellow-legged mining bee

Scientific nameAndrena flavipes

AuthorityPanzer, 1799

FamilyAndrenidae (mining bees)

UK statusLocally common; spreading north

SizeMedium

ActiveMarch to September (two broods)

GenerationsTwo per year (bivoltine)

NestingIn ground, often huge aggregations

CuckooPainted nomad bee

Also hostsDotted bee-fly

TemperamentDocile, very rarely stings

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Hymenoptera
Family	Andrenidae
Genus	Andrena
Species	Andrena flavipes

A mining bee with two seasons

Mining bees of the genus Andrena are solitary, ground-nesting bees: each female digs her own burrow, lines a series of cells, and stocks each with pollen and nectar for a single larva.^[4] The yellow-legged mining bee is a medium-sized, strongly banded member of the group. Females have neat pale hair bands across the abdomen and characteristically pale, yellowish hairs on the hind legs that give the bee its name, with buff facial hair edged in black.^[2] Males are slimmer, with sparser hair and without the dense pollen-carrying brushes of the female.^[3]

Two broods, not one

Most British mining bees fly for only a few weeks each year. The yellow-legged mining bee is bivoltine, raising two full generations: a spring brood from around March to May and a second from June into September.^[1]

Where it lives, and its growing range

The yellow-legged mining bee is widespread and locally common across southern England and the south coast of Wales, with records reaching the Channel Islands and the Isles of Scilly.^[1] It favours open, sunny places on clay-based or sandy soils, from gardens, parks and allotments to churchyards, field margins, road verges, old quarries and waste ground.^[3] Over the past few decades it has spread markedly northwards and become more abundant in its core range, part of a wider shift in warmth-loving insects.^[2] Its nesting aggregations can be enormous, with thousands of burrows packed into a single sunny bank.

Where the yellow-legged mining bee nests in numbers, look for its painted nomad bee flying low over the burrows. Seeing the wasp-like cuckoo is often the quickest way to confirm a thriving colony of the host.^[2]

A bee that feeds a community

As a generalist forager the yellow-legged mining bee visits a huge range of flowers, from dandelions and daisies to fruit blossom, making it a valuable early pollinator of orchards and gardens.^[4] Its large, dense colonies also support a small community of dependent insects. It is the sole host of the painted nomad bee, a wasp-like cuckoo bee, and one of the main hosts of the dotted bee-fly, whose larvae develop in mining bee nests.^[2]

Source conflict

Not every association is firmly proven. The black oil beetle, whose triungulin larvae hitch a ride on solitary bees, is thought to depend heavily on yellow-legged mining bee colonies in some coastal areas of Essex and Kent, but this link is suspected rather than confirmed. The bee's own status, by contrast, is secure: it is not considered scarce or threatened, and needs no special conservation measures.^[1][5]

Why it matters

The yellow-legged mining bee shows how a single common bee can anchor a wider web of life. It is an effective early pollinator, a host to a cuckoo bee and a bee-fly, and a possible mainstay for a rare beetle. Its spread north is a clear, trackable sign of climate change at work in our insect fauna. Leaving sunny, bare or sparsely vegetated banks undisturbed, and growing early flowers such as dandelions, willows and fruit blossom, gives this bee and everything that depends on it a place to thrive.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I identify a yellow-legged mining bee?

Look for a medium, strongly banded mining bee with neat pale bands across the abdomen and pale, yellowish hairs on the hind legs, often around bare sunny ground in spring or late summer. Females show buff facial hair edged with black. Small mining bees are tricky, so close views can help.

What is a mining bee?

Mining bees are solitary, ground-nesting bees, mostly in the genus Andrena. Each female digs her own burrow with several cells, stocks each with pollen and nectar, and lays a single egg per cell. There is no queen, no workers and no shared nest.

Why does it have two generations a year?

Unlike most British mining bees, which fly for only a few weeks, the yellow-legged mining bee is bivoltine: it produces a spring brood from about March to May and a second summer brood from June into September. This is part of what makes it so successful.

Is the yellow-legged mining bee spreading?

Yes. Once mainly a southern bee, it has spread markedly northwards in recent decades and become more abundant in its core range, a pattern seen in several warmth-loving insects.

What is the painted nomad bee, and how is it linked?

The painted nomad bee is a wasp-like cuckoo bee that lays its eggs in yellow-legged mining bee nests; its grub eats the host's stored food. Seeing it flying low over a bank is a good sign that a colony of the mining bee is present.

Do yellow-legged mining bees sting?

They can, but they are extremely docile and very rarely sting, and the sting is weak. With no shared hive to defend they have little reason to be aggressive, and they are safe to have around gardens, children and pets.

Are mining bee nests bad for my lawn?

No. The small soil mounds are temporary and cause no lasting harm to a lawn or bank. The bees aerate the soil, pollinate spring flowers and disappear once the flight season ends, so the best response is simply to enjoy them.

Does the yellow-legged mining bee make honey?

No. Each female stores only enough pollen and nectar to feed her own larvae, never a harvestable surplus. Only the honeybee makes honey in quantity. Compare the bee families in the World Bee Atlas.

Related species

Its cuckoo

Painted Nomad Bee

Nomada fucataRead more → Mining bee

Tawny Mining Bee

Andrena fulvaRead more → Mining bee

Ashy Mining Bee

Andrena cinerariaRead more →

Sources & references

BWARS (Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society). Species account: Andrena flavipes Panzer, 1799, distribution, bivoltine flight period and status. bwars.com.
Falk, S. Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland, Bloomsbury, with notes for Andrena flavipes (banding, facial hair, northward spread, associated Nomada fucata and bee-fly). Steven Falk Flickr collection.
BWARS information sheet for Andrena flavipes, the yellow-legged mining bee: habitats, male and female characters, two flight periods.
Andrena genus biology, after Stephen, Bohart & Torchio (1969) and Falk (2015): solitary ground-nesting, cell provisioning and generalist foraging.
GBIF Secretariat and field accounts (NatureSpot, WildBristol) for Andrena flavipes: associated species including the dotted bee-fly and the suspected oil-beetle link.

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