Male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee (Anthrophora plumipes) in my garden last year

Dear Readers, as I was wandering up Huntingdon Road in East Finchley earlier this week, I spotted another first sign of spring. Someone has a very nice viburnum in a pot in their front garden, and there were no less than four male hairy-footed flower bees divebombing one another around it. Regular readers might remember that I did some research on this species last year for my OU degree, and learned quite a bit about their life cycles.

Every year, the eggs that have been laid in tunnels in walls or chimney stacks during the previous year hatch, and the male bees emerge first. In the hairy-footed flower bee, this can be as early as February, though this year I suspect that the near-constant rain kept them ‘indoors’ until now. They are amongst the first bees to emerge every year. They are a very, very fast and flighty species, and difficult to photograph, though you maybe get the idea from the photo below.

Yes, the males are ginger with white markings on their faces, and often fly with their tongue out, which endears them to me no end.

The males tend to hang around the flowers where they hope the females will arrive to feed, but they can sometimes have a long wait (anything up to 2 to 3 weeks). When the females do arrive, they are even ‘zoomier’ than the males, and are pretty easily identified if they stay still long enough – they are jet-black, but with a ginger pollen brush on the hind legs (these bees don’t have complex pollen baskets like social bees such as bumbles and honeybees).

Female Hairy-Footed Flower Bee

Female Hairy-Footed Flower Bee

But why, I hear you ask, is the bee described as ‘hairy-footed’? Well, have a look at the excellent photo below and it might give you a clue…

Photo by Gilles San Martin at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sanmartin/52849456034/

Once the females emerge, the males will attempt to mate with the female, who won’t put up with any of that old nonsense if she isn’t in the mood, raising a leg to indicate that the male should get with the programme, because once mated the female will spend the rest of her short life feeding, digging a nest tunnel, laying her eggs, sealing the tunnel up and then coming to the end of her short life. No wonder these bees like to get started early! 

If you watch closely, there is wave after wave of bee species visiting the garden, from this species at the start of the spring right through to the ivy bees at the close of the season. I’m intending to keep a very close eye this year, to see who is about and when. Let me know what you’re seeing in your garden!

Ivy bee from 22nd September last year.