A female Mining bee species, Andrena nitida ^[1,2,3] fouragering on Firethorn (Pyracantha spec.).

A first sighting and a new garden species! Unfortunately all rather bad photo’s.

Like other Mining bees they are regular visitors of the Firethorn plant where they stand out between the Honey bees by their round, compact shape and slow manner of flight.

The firethorn is being used here for nectar at least, possibly also for collecting pollen.

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Literature

¹ Nederlands Soortenregister

² Peeters, T.M.J., H. Nieuwenhuijsen, J. Smit, F. van der Meer, I.P. Raemakers, W.R.B. Heitmans, C. van Achterberg, M. Kwak, A.J. Loonstra, J. de Rond, M. Roos & M. Reemer 2012. De Nederlands bijen (Hymennoptera: Apidae s.l.). - Natuur van Nederland 11, Naturalis Biodiversity Center & European Invertebrate Survey - Nederland, Leiden.

³ wildebijen.nl, "De Nederlandse bijen en hun relaties, overzicht van in Nederland en Vlaanderen voorkomende solitaire en sociale bijen (Apidea s.l.)"