Widely recorded across Europe, with local variation in abundance and northern or southern range limits.
Fine-art photographic collection
Andrena carantonica
A solitary bee that can share a single front door with hundreds of neighbours.
About this species
Chocolate Mining Bee
Andrena carantonicaPérez, 1902
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Andrena carantonica, often treated in Britain under the name Andrena scotica, is solitary in brood care but frequently communal in architecture. Many females may use one concealed entrance before branching into separate tunnels and cells of their own.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Andrenidae · Andrena
Accepted in the current Catalogue of Life/GBIF treatment. UKSI has also treated British records under Andrena scotica, so the gallery identification is retained with this taxonomic note. · checked 2026-07-15
EuropeBroad documented range and selected occurrence localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Open or semi-open flower-rich habitat with suitable soil for nesting; exact preferences vary across the species range.
Seasonal and diurnal; the precise flight period varies with latitude and climate.
Adults take nectar; females collect pollen to provision brood cells.
Solitary ground-nesting bee; several females may nest close together.
What makes this species remarkable?
More than 200 females have been seen entering the same nesting area within fifteen minutes, despite each female provisioning her own brood cells.
New adults remain underground through winter and emerge from their natal burrows already fully formed the following spring.
Its nests are infiltrated by specialist cuckoo bees and even by Stylops parasites that develop inside the adult bee’s body.