About

The ashy mining bee is a solitary bee, which means that female bees live alone, each creating their own nest. Ashy mining bees usually emerge in March and can be seen until June, though are occasionally seen later in the year. They can be found in a wide range of open, sunny places, from coastal grassland, moorlands and riverbanks to quarries, parks and gardens. They collect nectar and pollen from spring flowering trees and shrubs like willow and blackthorn, as well as flowers such as dandelions and buttercups.

Each female digs a nesting burrow in a patch of bare or almost bare earth, such as on a well-trodden footpath, a patchy lawn, or a heavily-grazed field. Their burrows are around 10-20cm deep. Sometimes many females will nest close together. Look out for a little heap of soil piled around the burrow entrance, like a miniature volcano. Once a female has dug a nest chamber, she adds some pollen to it, often moistened with nectar, and lays an egg next to it. She then seals off this chamber and moves on to the next. When each egg hatches, the larva will fatten up on the pollen and nectar, ready to pupate and emerge as an adult the following spring.

Like many solitary bees, ashy mining bees are targeted by a variety of parasites that try to lay their eggs in the bee's burrow. They are the main host of Lathbury's nomad bee, which sneaks into an unsealed nest chamber and lays its egg in the wall - the nomad bee larva hatches and kills the host's egg or larva, then feeds on the food left for it. They are also targeted by bee-flies, which hover near the burrow entrance and flick their eggs into the nest.