Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Andrena erigeniae - Spring Beauty Mining Bee

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Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
No Taxon (Apoidea (clade Anthophila) - Bees)
Family Andrenidae (Miner, Fairy, Allied Panurgine, and Oxaeine Bees)
Subfamily Andreninae (Mining Bees)
Genus Andrena
No Taxon (Subgenus Ptilandrena)
Species erigeniae (Spring Beauty Mining Bee)
Explanation of Names
Author: Robertson, 1891. Named for a plant other than its pollen host.
Size
Female 8 mm, male 7-8 mm
Identification
Male S8 distinctively bifurcating at its apex.

Facial foveae thin. Host plant has pink pollen.
Range
Minnesota to New York, south to North Carolina and Georgia.
Season
March to May.
Food
It is an oligolege of spring beauties Claytonia including C. virginica despite being named for a different plant Erigenia, often found near spring beauties. The Hosts section on its Discover Life species page lists known floral associations based on specimen records and images.
Remarks
Visits flowers of Claytonia virginica and other Claytonia spp. for pollen. It also visits Erigenia bulbosa and other flowers for nectar.
Print References
Davis, L. W., and W. E. LaBerge. 1975. The nest biology of the bee Andrena (Ptilandrena) erigeniae Robertson (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae). Illinois Natural History Survey Biological Notes no. 95: 16 pp.
Internet References