Andrena fulva

The female has long, dense, bright reddish hairs on the top of her body, contrasting with black hairs on the rest of the body and head.

The red mason bee, Osmia bicornis, can look similar, but it has two small horns on its face and a pollen brush under its abdomen.

The male has long white hairs on the face and a large tooth at the base of each jaw.

It is found throughout much of Europe, reaching east to Bulgaria and Romania.

In Britain it occurs across much of lowland England and Wales, and it has recently been recorded in Scotland for the first time.

It has one generation a year and flies in spring, from late March to mid June.

A nest usually holds four or five brood cells, and one female can build two or three nests.

Two cuckoo bees, Nomada panzeri and Nomada signata, raise their young in its nests; at one South Wales site N. panzeri took 18% of cells.

Householders often notice it because females dig their nest burrows in garden lawns.

The dug-out soil forms a small, obvious mound with the nest entrance in the middle.

Nests are usually grouped together in aggregations that can last for many years.

It collects food from a wide range of herbs, shrubs and trees.

It is not considered scarce or threatened in Britain. In Ireland it had not been seen since 1925 and was listed as Regionally Extinct in 2006, but it was rediscovered in County Kilkenny in 2012 and has since been seen in several other counties.