Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Apoidea (clade Anthophila) - Bees » Miner, Fairy, Allied Panurgine, and Oxaeine Bees (Andrenidae) » Mining Bees (Andreninae) » Andrena » Subgenus Taeniandrena (Andrena Subgenus Taeniandrena) » Andrena wilkella

Species Andrena wilkella

small White-haired bee - Andrena wilkella - male

dark bee with broken abdominal bands feeding on birdsfoot trefoil - Andrena wilkella

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 Taeniandrena)

Species wilkella (Andrena wilkella)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Andrena xanthura; Andrena convexiuscula; Andrena quadristrigata; Andrena winkleyi

Explanation of Names

Author: Kirby, 1802.

Size

Female: 10-12 mm. Male 9-11 mm.

Range

Eastern USA and Europe. It keeps expanding its range (it has been collected in N.Mexico and Arizona). From Nova Scotia through Quebec and the New England states to Wisconsin, eastward through Ohio to Virginia and Maryland. Discover Life Map

Season

April to August.

Food

most often collects pollen from clover and sweet clover (Fabaceae). The Hosts section on its Discover Life species page lists known floral associations based on specimen records and images.

Life Cycle

It nests singly (Chambers, 1949) or in large aggregations (Perkins, 1919). It over-winters as a larva or prepupa (Meidell, 1967). Males are often seen flying in large numbers about the foliage.

Remarks

Introduced long ago from Europe, possibly from transportation of its ground nests in ships' ballast.

It flies into summer, when few native Andrena are flying.

Internet References

DiscoverLife.Org

Encyclopedia of Life

BWARS

Contributed by Tony DiTerlizzi on 23 September, 2006 - 10:37am
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, John S. Ascher, hg
Last updated 4 June, 2018 - 7:34am

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