--- title: "银色游牧蜂" date: 2026-07-27 published: 2026-06-29 author: "Dragos Nistor" featured_image: "https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/silvery-nomad-bee-nomada-argentata-placeholder.jpg" categories: - name: "蜜蜂类别" url: "/zh/bees-category.md" tags: - name: "布谷鸟" url: "/zh/tag/cuckoo-bee.md" - name: "罕见" url: "/zh/tag/rare.md" - name: "孤独的蜜蜂" url: "/zh/tag/solitary-bee.md" - name: "英国的蜜蜂" url: "/zh/tag/uk-bees.md" --- # 银色游牧蜂 ![Placeholder image for the silver-sided nomad bee, Nomada argentata. We do not yet have a freely licensed photograph of this rare bee](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/silvery-nomad-bee-nomada-argentata-placeholder.jpg "Silvery Nomad Bee 1")We do not yet have a freely licensed photograph of the silver-sided nomad bee. The placeholder above stands in for now. If you can help, please see the request below. [Bees Hub](https://honeybeeandco.uk/bees/) [World Bee Atlas](https://honeybeeandco.uk/world-bee-atlas/) [UK Bee Map](https://honeybeeandco.uk/uk-bee-distribution/) [Plate Without Bees](https://honeybeeandco.uk/plate-without-bees/) Nationally Rare Nomada argentata |Cuckoo bee (Apidae) |Red and black, silvery sides |Cuckoo of one scabious mining bee UK Bee Species ## Silver-sided Nomad Bee *Nomada argentata* Herrich-Schäffer, 1839 · subfamily Nomadinae · family Apidae Also called the silvery nomad bee. The name *argentata* means “silvery”, after the silver hairs along its sides. **In the absence of a photograph, here it is in words**female OverallA small, wasp-like cuckoo bee, red and black, with no yellow anywhere on the body. The giveawayPatches of silvery hairs along the sides, which give the bee its name. ThoraxA large red patch on each side, and red on the collar and shoulders. MalesDarker still, often all-dark, with an almost entirely black face, unusual for a nomad. Most cuckoo bees you can at least name from a good photograph. The **silver-sided nomad bee** is not one of them: it is genuinely a microscope job, separated from its near-relatives on the fine detail of its mandibles, antennae and hind legs.[\[3\]](#r3) It is also one of Britain’s rarest and most sharply declined bees, and its fortunes are bound to a single, equally particular host.[\[1\]](#r1) #### Can you help? We need a photograph We would love to show the silver-sided nomad bee properly. If you hold an image of *Nomada argentata* under a Creative Commons or public-domain licence, and are happy for us to feature it with full credit, please get in touch. [email removed] ## One cuckoo, one host, one flower The silver-sided nomad bee is a specialist’s specialist. It is a cuckoo of just one mining bee, the small scabious mining bee (*Andrena marginata*), laying its eggs in that bee’s burrows.[\[2\]](#r2) That host, in turn, depends on scabious: devil’s-bit scabious and small scabious, on the kind of unimproved chalk grassland and heath that is now scarce itself. Three links, and every one of them has to hold.[\[1\]](#r1) CuckooSilver-sided nomad beeNomada argentata → HostSmall scabious mining beeAndrena marginata → FlowerScabiousSuccisa and Scabiosa The nomad is scarcer than its host, and the host is scarcer than its flower. Lose any link and the chain breaks. ## How a nomad bee lives Nomad bees are the wasp-like cuckoos of the mining bees. A female builds no nest and gathers no pollen. She flies low over a host’s nesting ground, slips into an open burrow, and lays her egg in a cell the host has stocked.[\[4\]](#r4) When the nomad grub hatches it destroys the host’s egg or young larva and eats the pollen store laid up for it. It is why nomads are almost hairless and brightly patterned rather than furry: with no pollen to carry, they have no need of the brushes and coats that working bees rely on. What the silver-sided nomad bee does need, absolutely, is for its one host to be nesting nearby.[\[1\]](#r1) ## Where and when to look This is a bee of high summer, univoltine and on the wing from about mid-July to mid-September, timed to the late-season flight of its host.[\[1\]](#r1) Look, if anywhere, on scabious-rich unimproved grassland, chalk downland, dunes and heaths in southern and eastern England, with modern strongholds in the East Anglian Brecks and on Salisbury Plain.[\[1\]](#r1) Even there it is elusive: it turns up at only a fraction of the sites where its host still flies, and it has declined markedly. Set its family among the world’s cuckoo bees in the [World Bee Atlas](https://honeybeeandco.uk/world-bee-atlas/), or see the wider British picture on the [UK Native Bee Species Map](https://honeybeeandco.uk/uk-bee-distribution/). #### How to help This bee cannot be helped directly, only through its host and its host’s flowers. Protecting and restoring unimproved, scabious-rich chalk grassland and heath, and grazing or cutting it in ways that let devil’s-bit and small scabious flourish, is what keeps the small scabious mining bee going, and with it any hope for its silver-sided cuckoo. ## Quick facts Common nameSilver-sided nomad bee (silvery nomad bee) Scientific name*Nomada argentata* AuthorityHerrich-Schäffer, 1839 FamilyApidae (subfamily Nomadinae) SizeMedium-small, forewing about 6 mm ColourRed and black, no yellow, silvery side hairs GB statusRare and much declined (provisional RDB3) LifestyleCleptoparasite (cuckoo) of a mining bee Host*Andrena marginata*, the small scabious mining bee ActiveMid-July to mid-September KingdomAnimalia PhylumArthropoda ClassInsecta OrderHymenoptera FamilyApidae SubfamilyNomadinae Genus*Nomada* Species*Nomada argentata* ## The name: silver at the edges “Nomad” fits a bee that keeps no home of its own and wanders in search of other bees’ nests. *Argentata* is Latin for “silvery”, after the neat patches of silver hair along the sides of the body that, in a group of red-and-black look-alikes, are one of the more noticeable field marks.[\[6\]](#r6) Field guides usually call it the silver-sided nomad bee for exactly that reason; silvery nomad bee is the same species under a slightly shorter name. ## Flower-rich grassland feeds far more than one bee The same unimproved meadows and downs that a rare cuckoo needs are what fill a jar of wildflower honey. Looking after one helps the other. ![Jar of HoneyBee & Co. raw British wildflower honey, 280g](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/wildflower-honey.avif "Silvery Nomad Bee 2")### Raw British Wildflower Honey Set by the meadow and hedgerow flowers of the British countryside, raw, unfiltered and full of character. Our British honey supplier holds SALSA Certification. 280g, £10.99. [Shop Wildflower Honey](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wildflower-honey/)Prefer a regular jar? Subscribe to any single honey and save 20%, with free UK delivery on every subscription order. [Start a Subscription](https://honeybeeandco.uk/honey-subscription/) [Browse the full shop](https://honeybeeandco.uk/shop/) Verified Reviews ## Trusted by Our Customers 4.9 ★★★★★ 55 reviews on Google [Read reviews →](https://www.google.com/maps/place/HoneyBee+%26+Co./@51.6308,-0.749,17z/) [Read all our reviews →](https://honeybeeandco.uk/zh/reviews/) ## Frequently asked questions Is the silver-sided nomad bee the same as the silvery nomad bee?Yes. *Nomada argentata* is usually called the silver-sided nomad bee in field guides, after the silvery hairs along its sides. Silvery nomad bee is a shorter name for the same species. Is it rare?Yes, one of Britain’s rarer bees. It is confined to southern and eastern England, has declined markedly, and holds on mainly in the East Anglian Brecks and on Salisbury Plain. What does it parasitise?A single host: the small scabious mining bee, *Andrena marginata*. The silver-sided nomad lays its eggs in that bee’s nests, and its grubs eat the host’s pollen store. Why is it tied to scabious?Not directly. Its host depends on scabious, devil’s-bit and small scabious, so the nomad is only found where those flowers, and therefore its host, still thrive. Can I identify it from a photograph?Usually not with certainty. It is a small red-and-black nomad with silvery side hairs, but confirming it apart from close relatives needs a specimen and a microscope, checking the mandibles, antennae and hind legs. When and where might I see it?From mid-July to mid-September, on scabious-rich unimproved grassland, chalk downland, dunes and heaths in the south and east. Even in the right place it is scarce and easily missed. Does it make honey?No. As a cuckoo bee it builds no nest and stores no food. Only the honeybee makes honey in any quantity. Compare the bee families in the [World Bee Atlas](https://honeybeeandco.uk/world-bee-atlas/). How can I help it?By helping its host. Protecting and sensitively managing unimproved, scabious-rich chalk grassland and heath supports the small scabious mining bee, and only where that bee holds on does its silver-sided cuckoo stand a chance. ## Related species [Cuckoo beeFabricius’ Nomad BeeNomada fabricianaRead more →](https://honeybeeandco.uk/fabricius-nomad-bee/) [Cuckoo beePainted Nomad BeeNomada fucataRead more →](https://honeybeeandco.uk/painted-nomad-bee/) [Mining beeTawny Mining BeeAndrena fulvaRead more →](https://honeybeeandco.uk/tawny-mining-bee/) ## Sources and references 1. BWARS (Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society). Species account: *Nomada argentata* (Apidae): cuckoo of *Andrena marginata* (Perkins, 1919), provisional Rare (pRDB3) status, univoltine mid-July to mid-September, calcareous grassland, dune and heath habitat, and its decline and southern British range. bwars.com. 2. BWARS. Species account: *Andrena marginata*, the small scabious mining bee: the host, its dependence on devil’s-bit and small scabious, and *Nomada argentata* as its cleptoparasite. bwars.com. 3. Falk, S. *Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland*, Bloomsbury, and the Revised British *Nomada* key (Falk, 2024): red-and-black coloration lacking yellow, silvery side hairs, dark males, and separation from similar nomads on mandibles, antennae and hind femora. 4. Else, G.R. & Edwards, M. (2018). *Handbook of the Bees of the British Isles*. Ray Society: the Nomadinae as cleptoparasites of mining bees, and the mechanics of cuckoo parasitism. 5. Falk, S. (1991). *A review of the scarce and threatened bees, wasps and ants of Great Britain*. Nature Conservancy Council: provisional Rare (pRDB3) status. 6. GBIF and the NBN Atlas: current name and authority, *Nomada argentata* Herrich-Schäffer, 1839; Herrich-Schäffer, G.A.W. (1839), original description. Etymology: Latin *argentata*, “silvery”. ![Three generations of the Nistor family beekeepers](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Nistor-Fanel-Nistor-Grigore-and-Nistor-Dragos.jpg "Silvery Nomad Bee 3") Dragos Nistor Founder, HoneyBee & Co. · Guest Lecturer, University of Greenwich [HoneyBee & Co.](https://honeybeeandco.uk/) draws on six generations of family beekeeping heritage, with honey from the Nistor family apiaries and from carefully chosen British producers. Our British honey supplier holds SALSA Certification, and we offer a 15% NHS Discount. Every jar is raw, unfiltered and traceable to the hive.