HYMENOPTERA > APOCRITA | Aculeata > APOIDEA > Andrenidae

Andrena is a difficult, sometimes impossible, genus for reliably identifying the species from photos. It's also the largest bee genus in Britain with well over sixty described species, the vast majority of which, at some time or another , have been recorded in my area. Consequently, it's not surprising that there are many occasions where I have to seek help, and even then, I may only get to a possible identification.

I always try to maintain a consistent approach to recording species regardless of the subject, whether it's bees or beetles, spiders or springtails, or even fungi and lichen, there has to be system. If possible, reliable, or as near certain as you can be, identification is sought, but there are many species where that's just not possible from photos, so the next best is 'probably' or 'likely' and, in those situations, the species name that's given under my photos will always include the cf. (can be compared to) qualifier. The next level down is where a particular individual can be reliably assigned to a family, subfamily, tribe or genus, but cannot be identified to a species, which is what we have here. I have many images on my computer that will probably never be seen simply because the species isn't known, which is why there are various pages on this site where I will feature some of those photos for comparison and future reference.  

Here, I currently have photos of a number of different Andrena sp. that I would obviously like to identify but, as yet, have not be able to do so.