Clepto

Female Panzer's Nomad Bee (Nomada panzeri)

At the moment, our garden is full of bees, including quite a few that we haven't yet been able to put a name to. This handsome girl, however, posed nicely for the camera, which allowed us to identify her. It's a female Panzer's Nomad Bee — one of a group of cleptoparasitic bees that lay their eggs in other bees' nests. Those eggs hatch into larvae that kill the host's eggs or larvae and exploit the pollen that had been collected for the host's offspring. Sneaky! They specialize on Andrena species, particularly Andrena fulva (also known as the Tawny Mining Bee) which we've already recorded nesting in the garden. This is another species which has never before been recorded in our 2km square!

Nomad bees can be a challenge to identify, but the four orange stripes and the orange scutellar tubercles (the orange bumps between the wings) on the thorax of this one are distinctive. The bright orange antennae and the red band at the top of her abdomen are also important ID features. This species is very similar to the Flavous Nomad Bee, but that one has yellow hairs on the face, and the hairs on the side of the thorax (i.e. behind the front legs) aren't quite as white. The Panzer's Nomad Bee also has more red on the segments of its abdomen. Like many female nomad bees, her eyes are a bright red-orange; the male's are greenish, and his antennae are mostly dark. Because they collect no pollen, nomad bees don't tend to be very hairy. In fact, with their bright colors and bold markings, they look a bit like little wasps.