Adults are commonly about 7–10 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Nomada fabriciana
A pollen-less cuckoo bee whose first larva eliminates the rightful heir of another bee’s nest.
About this species
Fabricius' Nomad Bee
Nomada fabriciana(Linnaeus, 1767)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Nomada fabriciana is a cleptoparasitic bee associated chiefly with mining bees such as Andrena bicolor. The female does not build or provision a nest; instead she places an egg inside a host brood cell and leaves her larva to take over the stored food.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Apidae · Nomada
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Europe, North Africa and western AsiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Europe, North Africa and western Asia
Woodland edges, gardens, banks and other places supporting nests of its mining-bee hosts.
Often has two flight periods where the principal host is also double-brooded.
Adults take nectar; larvae consume the pollen and nectar provision collected by a host bee.
Solitary cleptoparasite.
What makes this species remarkable?
The female slips an egg into an unfinished mining-bee cell, so the host unknowingly seals the cuckoo egg beside its own provision.
The first-stage larva carries sickle-shaped jaws, kills the host egg or young larva and then consumes the entire pollen store.
Two seasonal generations can be synchronised with the two broods of Andrena bicolor, keeping parasite and host on the same biological timetable.