Andrena agilissima (Scopoli, 1770)
Common name: Violet-Winged Mining Bee.
Family: Andrenidae.
Length: 13 to 15mm (Females slightly larger)
Flight Season: Univoltine, (one brood a year) March through to August. (In Alicante, Spain.)
The Violet-winged mining bee is a very attractive bee and is commonly found, through Central and Southern Europe, as far north as Holland and Poland, (absent in Britain, although found in the Channel Islands). In the south, it is widespread across most North African countries, also countries and Islands with coastlines in and around the Mediterranean.
Habitat & Nesting: Various Flowery habitats, especially where plants of the Brassicaceae family are growing, one of their favourites being, the “Wild Mustard plant” (Sinapis Arvensis) which is a favourite food source, for the Violet-winged Bee. The breeding sites will be close to the plants they feed from, often between the crumbling mortar crevices on vertical walls and in cracked surfaces of soft-rock cliffs, facing in a southerly direction. Several females will often share the main entrance to the nesting chambers.
The Nomada Bee “Melathoracica” is a known associate and parasite to The Andrena agilissima Bee.