snowy mining bee

(Andrena nivalis)

Conservation Status
IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

NNR - Unranked

SNR - Unranked

Minnesota

not listed

 
snowy mining bee
Photo by Alfredo Colon
 
Description

Snowy mining bee is a common, medium-sized, solitary, ground nesting bee. It occurs in the United States from Maine to Maryland, west to Minnesota and Iowa, south along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia, and throughout the country west of the Great Plains. It occurs across southern Canada from Nova Scotia to British Columbia.

Adults are active from early May through mid-July. They are generalist pollen collectors, collecting pollen from a wide variety of flowers without any apparent preference.

Snowy mining bee is unusually variable in both size and coloration, and that has resulted in it being described several times with different scientific names. The variations follow three general patterns. Pale individuals have mostly pale yellowish-brown hairs. Dark individuals have mostly dark brown to black hairs. Intermediate individuals have more or less pale hairs on the head and face, and pale pollen-collecting hairs (scopa) on the fourth segment (tibia) of the hind legs. The description that follows is of pale individuals.

Females are 716 to (11 to 15 mm) in length. The body is black.

On the female, the head is black. The outer (apical) half of the jaws (mandibles) are often tinged with red. There are two large compound eyes on the sides of the head and three simple eyes (ocelli) in a triangle on top of the head. The compound eyes are distinctly vertical. The inner margins are straight up and down and close to parallel. Next to the inner margin of each compound eye there is a slight depression (fovea) out of which emerges a dense band of pale hairs. The foveae are broad and shallow. The tongue is short and pointed. The antennae have 12 segments: a long segment at the base (scape), a short connecting segment (pedicel), and a whip-like third section (flagellum) with 10 segments (flagellomeres). Flagellomeres 3 through 10 are dark reddish brown on the underside. There are two grooves (subantennal sutures) below the base of each antenna, though these cannot be seen without careful handling and possibly also a microscope. The plate on the face (clypeus) above the upper lip is black. The tongue is short and pointed.

The thorax is black. The hairs on the thorax are occasionally orangish red.

The abdomen has 6 segments (tergites). The first tergite (T1) has white hairs. T2 has pale hairs sometimes intermixed with brown hairs. T4 has entirely brown hairs. T5 and 6 have dark brown hairs.

The forewings are clear and moderately tinged blackish. The marginal cell is relatively long and is pointed (narrowly rounded) at the tip. There are three submarginal cells. The second submarginal cell is large and almost rectangular. The first m-cu vein meets the second submarginal cell at about the middle of the cell. The basal vein is nearly straight. The broad lobe at the base of the hindwing (jugal lobe) is longer than the narrow cell adjacent to it (submedian cell).

At the base of each hind leg on the female there is a tuft of long, thick, pollen-collecting hairs (scopa).

Males are a little smaller, to ½ (9 to 12 mm) in length. The antennae have 13 segments. The abdomen has 7 segments.

 

Size

Female total length: 716 to (11 to 15 mm)

Male total length: to ½ (9 to 12 mm)

 

Similar Species

 
Habitat

 

Biology

Season

Early May through mid-July

 

Behavior

 

 

Life Cycle

The female creates a vertical tunnel in the ground with side tunnels branching off. Each side tunnel is a cell that contains a single egg and is provisioned with a ball of pollen mixed with nectar.

 

Larva Food

Pollen mixed with nectar

 

Adult Food

 

Distribution

Distribution Map

 

Sources

24, 29, 30, 82, 83.

Bouseman, J. K., LaBerge, W. E. 1978. A revision of the bees of the genus Andrena of the Western Hemisphere. Part IX. Subgenus Melandrena. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 104: 275-390.

1/17/2025    
     

Occurrence

 

Taxonomy

Order

Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies)

Suborder

Apocrita (narrow-waisted wasps, ants, and bees)

Infraorder

Aculeata (ants, bees, and stinging wasps)

Superfamily

Apoidea (bees and apoid wasps)

Epifamily

Anthophila (bees)

Family

Andrenidae (miner, fairy, allied panurgine, and oxaeine bees)

Subfamily

Andreninae (typical mining bees)

Tribe

Andrenini

Genus

Andrena (mining bees)

Subgenus

Andrena

Genus

Andrena (mining bees)

Subgenus

Melandrena

   

Subordinate Taxa

 

   

Synonyms

Andrena argentiniae ssp. trichomelaena

Andrena compactiscopa

Andrena convexa

Andrena errans

Andrena idahorum

Andrena junonia

Andrena pluvialis

Andrena semirufa

Andrena solidula

Andrena spaldingi

   

Common Names

snow miner bee

snowy miner

snowy mining bee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Clypeus

On insects, a hardened plate on the face above the upper lip (labrum).

 

Flagellomere

A segment of the whip-like third section of an insect antenna (flagellum).

 

Fovea

In spiders, a depression in the middle of the carapace, which is the internal attachment point for the stomach muscles. In the bee family Andrenidae, a small depression or groove on the face of a bee, usually located between the compound eyes. The fovea is filled with pale hairs. Plural: foveae.

 

Ocellus

Simple eye; an eye with a single lens. Plural: ocelli.

 

Scopa

A brush-like tuft of hairs on the legs or underside of the abdomen of a bee used to collect pollen.

 

Tibia

The fourth segment of an insect leg, after the femur and before the tarsus (foot). The fifth segment of a spider leg or palp.

 

Vertex

The upper surface of an insect’s head.

 

 

 

 

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Alfredo Colon

snowy mining bee
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Alfredo Colon
6/8/2021

Location: Woodbury, MN

snowy mining bee
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Created: 1/17/2025

Last Updated:

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