Came across this little volcano of earth particles in some short grass. Could it be the beginning of an ants' nest. But no. This is the entrance to a mining bee's nest.
One of the commonest is the Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva). The female pictured below has bright chestnut fur on her thorax but the male is golden brown all over, except for the black head.
The female mining bees dig a vertical mineshaft up to 30cm deep with side chambers which they ply with a mixture of pollen and nectar. An egg is laid in each chamber before it is sealed off. The larvae pupate and hibernate until March or May the following year, when they emerge again to repeat the cycle. Nobody tells them what to do. Incredible!
They are quite important for pollinating fruit trees like this apple.
Queen wasps on the other hand hibernate as adults. After waking, this one had been resting on the beams in our conservatory over night and dropped exhausted on to our breakfast table. She was quite easy to capture under a glass before returning her to the garden.
Queen wasps are the only ones to survive the winter. She will soon start a new nest and, when the first of her new brood are mature, she will leave the building and foraging to them and concentrate on laying eggs for the rest of her life.
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