hairy-banded mining bee

not listed

NNR - Unranked

SNR - Unranked

not listed

Hairy-banded mining bee is an easily recognized, late season, mining bee. It occurs in the United States from Maine to Idaho south to Tennessee and New Mexico, and in Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario, Canada. It is common in Minnesota. It appears in late summer when its preferred pollen sources, Solidago and Euthamia, are in bloom.

Hairy-banded mining bee is often mistaken for a bumble bee. Females are 7⁄16″ to ½″ (11 to 13 mm) long. Males are more slender and a little smaller, 5⁄16″ to ⅜″ (8.5 to 10 mm) long. Both sexes are densely covered with long hairs that are lemon-yellow with a slight greenish tinge.

There are two large compound eyes on the sides of the head and three simple eyes (ocelli) in a triangle on top of the head. The compound eyes are distinctly vertical. The inner margins are straight up and down and close to parallel. Next to the inner margin of each compound eye there is a slight depression (fovia) out of which emerges a dense band of pale hairs. The face is wider than long. The tongue is short and pointed. The finger-like sensory organs (labial palps) attached to the mouth have four segments. All of the segments are cylindrical and about the same length. The antennae of the male have 11 segments (flagellomeres) beyond the scape and pedicel. The female antennae have 10 flagellomeres. There are two grooves (subantennal sutures) below the base of each antenna, though these cannot be seen without careful handling and possibly also a microscope.

The thorax is densely covered with long, erect, yellow hairs.

The female has six abdominal segments, the male has seven. On both sexes there is a dense band of erect yellow hairs at the rear margin of each segment.

The forewings are mostly clear but moderately darkened toward the tip. The marginal cell is relatively long and is pointed (narrowly rounded) at the tip. There are three submarginal cells. The second submarginal cell is much shorter than the first and third. The basal vein is nearly straight. The broad lobe at the base of the hindwing (jugal lobe) is longer than the narrow cell adjacent to it (submedian cell).

Female: 7⁄16″ to ½″ (11 to 13 mm)

Male: 5⁄16″ to ⅜″ (8.5 to 10 mm)

Prairies, weedy fields

One generation per year: August to October

The female creates a vertical tunnel in the ground with side tunnels branching off. Each side tunnel is a cell that contains a single egg and is provisioned with a ball of pollen mixed with nectar.

Pollen mixed with nectar

Pollen of goldenrods in the genera Solidago and Euthamia.

Sources

24, 27, 29, 30, 82, 83.

Common

Location: Anoka MN

Hello from Anoka MN.  I am pleased to tell you I have a nest of Hairy Banded Mining Bees in my garden.  They are up against my garden wall.  I have been organically gardening for ten years (including the lawn) and it is amazing the creatures that have visited the garden over the years.  These little bees are welcome here and I will let them stay.

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota