I thought it looked very much like Andrena tibialis, but when I read the commentary on the garden safari site it speaks of being a spring time specie..
Their behaviour was strange or rather new to me. They stayed with many individuals on the same flower spike of Lythrum salicaria among the wild vegetation on the border of a small lake. They were rather slow in their movements , not busy like a 'normal' bee. They looked 'friendly'..
many faces..
....
and a last..
I wouldn't like to hazard a guess on these bees unless they are distinctly different! The facial hairs are the wrong colour for A. tibialis, I have looked through the Andrena species on BWARS and didn't see any that matched. There are a lot more species and so many are similar that without a specimen to examine and an expert to ID it we are lost, lol.
http://www.bwars.com/Gallery.htm
I see! Now I think it could also be a Colletes specie, there are many on that site that look very much like mine. (I remember that excellent site, had it on my favorites but somehow lost it, now I've added it again).I better give up on that one! Thanks!
