Sunday 15 April 2012

RSPB Tudeley car park


Doing my RSPB car-park duty, I found a quiet Andrena male on a hawthorn leaf in the woodland fringe around the car park, and some of the pictures are shown below. At first glance it could have been Andrena nitida, and although it didn't fit the draft Andrena key on the BWARS website, it did fit the Falk book, and I still think that's the right ID.






Note the apparently darker hairs along the inside margin of the eye, which is mentioned in the Falk book. 
 


The characteristics of Andrena nitida include the foxy red thorax hairs, white moustache with some dark hairs, white underside hairs and whitish or pale brown leg hairs, together with the shiny dorsal surface to the abdomen. There was also another individual, possibly of the same species, on one of the branches:

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