Wilke's mining bee
Andrena wilkella
Wilke's mining bee is a small wild bee about one centimetre long. It loves clover flowers and buzzes from one to the next, collecting pollen. It first lived only in Europe, but now it lives in North America too.
Lives in
Europe, and now North America too, in meadows and gardens with clover
Length
0.9 to 1.2 cm (0.35 to 0.47 in)
females are a little bigger than malesWhat does it eat?
It drinks nectar and collects pollen, most of all from clover and sweet clover. The pollen is food for its babies.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 2 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 17 seconds⚡moves 510 times its own body length every second
How big is Wilke's mining bee compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Wilke's mining bee about 22 km/h (14 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Nobody brought it to America on purpose. It probably hitched a ride long ago in the ballast of old ships.
2
Some females build a nest all alone, while others nest close together in a big group.
3
You can see it flying from April to August.
you asked
Most asked questions about Wilke's mining bee
?What does Wilke's mining bee eat?
Nectar and pollen from flowers, especially clover and sweet clover.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Andrena wilkella
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Andrenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Andrenidae
- Lives on
- Europe, North America
Where the facts come from
- Andrena wilkella (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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