Andrena scotica (Perkins, 1916) Chocolate Mining Bee, 9.5mm to10.5mm Female, 7.5mm to 9.5mm male.
The Chocolate Mining Bee earlier known as A.carantonica, is a common communal mining bee occurring in various habitats, found in the U.K. and western to central Europe.
Flight season. mid- March to July, (can extend into August up north). Numbers peak when Blackthorn and hawthorn blossoms. A second generation can occasionally occur in some southern districts, with males on wing as early as mid-June and females extending into August.
Habitat…A wide range of various landscapes visited, favouring all flower rich urban gardens, meadows, hedgerows, and farmlands.
A wide variety of blossoming shrubs and flowers are visited including Blackthorn, hawthorn, fruit trees, umbellifers, dandelions etc.
Multiple females commonly share their nest sites entrances but have their own brood chambers within the nest. Nesting sites usually occur on sunlit banks and slopes amongst vegetation and leaf litter. Unfortunately, Chocolate mining bees are often hosting to various parasites and associates. The cleptoparasitic bees, Nomada flava, Nomada marshamella and the bee-fly Bombylius major are always close by. The parasitic fly Stylops melittae (larvae); which favours mining bees is also a constant threat.
Images below are of the female; the male is smaller and has a thinner body structure.