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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera |
Mining Bees.
Adults small to large; (5.5–)9–16 mm long; very hairy; with branched or feathery hairs on the body. Solitary insects (in the sense of not forming organised colonies, but often many nests are constructed side by side).
Head. Antennal segments (10–)12 (females), or (10–)13 (males). The terminal antennal segment pointed. Tongue shorter than the prementum (but almost as long, in a Panurgus illustrated by Saunders); pointed. Labial palps with all the segments similar in length and subcylindrical, or with only segment 1 elongated and all of them subcylindrical.
Thorax. Thorax black, grey, black and grey, brown or reddish brown. Pronotum more or less straight at the back; short, not extending back to the tegulae. Cenchri absent. Wings present. Fore-wings with a conspicuous pterostigma, or without a pterostigma (the pterostigma usually inconspicuous); with the venation well developed. Closed fore-wing cells 6–10. Submarginal cells 2, or 3. Discoidal cells 2. The basal forewing vein (BV) straightish. Hind-wings with closed cells. Hind femur without a well defined trochantellus. Hind tibiae with spurs specialised for a cleaning rôle. Hind basitarsi wider than the other segments.
Abdomen. The abdomen with a marked basal constriction; short-waisted. The ‘waist’ simple. Visible abdominal segments 6 (females), or 7 (males). The gaster concolorous, or colour-patterned; when concolorous, black, brown or reddish brown; when colour-patterned, black-and-yellow, -orange or -grey. Ovipositor of females not visibly protruding; modified as a retractable sting.
Larvae. Larvae legless or the legs vestigial; feeding on material manufactured by the adults.
British representation. Species in Britain about 70; Andrena (with all but two of the species, in numerous subgenera), and Panurgus.
Classification. Suborder Apocrita; Series Aculeata; Superfamily Apoidea.
Illustrations. • Panurgus banksianus (Hairy Panurgus): B. Ent. 101. • Panurgus banksianus (detail): B. Ent. 101. • Panurgus banksianus (dissections): B. Ent. 101. • Panurgus banksianus: B. Ent. 101, legend+text. • Panurgus banksianus (text, cont.): B. Ent. 101. • 6 Andrena species (Saunders XXVIII). ANDRENIDAE. 1 and 2, Andrena albicans: female (1) and male. 3, Andrena pilipes (female). 4, Andrena tibialis (female). 5, Andrena florea (female). 6, Andrena rosae (male). 7, genital armature of male Andrena trimmerana. From Saunders (1896). • 5 Andrena species (Saunders XXIX). ANDRENIDAE. 1 and 2, Andrena trimmerana: male (1) and female. 3, Andrena cineraria (female), 4, Andrena thoracica (female). 5, Andrena pubescens (female). 6, Andrena clarkella (female). From Saunders (1896). • 4 Andrena species (Saunders XXX). ANDRENIDAE. 1 and 2, Andrena fulva: male (1) and female. 3, Andrena bicolor (female). 4, Andrena apicata (female). 5, Andrena fucata (female). From Saunders (1896). • 5 Andrena species (Saunders XXXI). ANDRENIDAE. 1 and 2: Andrena ferox, male (1) and female. 3, Andrena bucephala, male. 4, Andrena nigriceps, female. 5, Andrena denticulata, female. 6, Andrena flavipes, female. From Saunders (1896). • Andrena species (Saunders XXXII). ANDRENIDAE. 1, Andrena gravida, female. 2 and 3: Andrena hattorfiana, male (2) and female. 4, Andrena marginata, female. 5, Andrena labiata, male. 6, Andrena barbilabris, female. From Saunders (1896). • 6 Andrena species (Saunders XXXIII). ANDRENIDAE. 1, Andrena chrysosceles, male. 2, Andrena tarsata, female. 3, Andrena humilis, female. 4, Andrena labialis, female. 5, Andrena nana, female. 6, Andrena dorsata, female. From Saunders (1896). • 3 Andrena species (Saunders XXXIV). ANDRENIDAE. 1, Andrena "afzeliella var. fuscata", female (= A. ovatula?). 2, Andrena wilkella, female. 3 and 4, Andrena ochreata, male (3) and female. From Saunders (1896). • Panurgus calcaratus (Saunders XXXV and XXXVI). ANDRENIDAE. Panurgus calcaratus: female, and genital armature of the male. From Saunders (1896, Plates XXXV and XXXVI). • Andrena bucephala: Stephens, 1846.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
