Species of the day: Hairy-footed Flower Bee

admin
, 07 April 2020
Species of the day: Hairy-footed Flower Bee
© James Duncan

By James Duncan

Learning and Engagement Officer

The Hairy-footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes) is the largest of the five Flower Bee species found in the UK. It's a common visitor to parks, gardens and urban spaces, though we're lucky in the south as it's most widely distributed in this region. The appearance of this bee frequently heralds the beginnings of spring, though occasionally the males may fly in late February. Once noticed, you'll realise just how numerous this little species is - should your garden happen to contain Lungwort (Pulmonaria sp.) you'll be all the more likely to see it frantically darting around as it's one of their most irresistible nectar sources. They certainly aren't limited to Pulmonaria, and Primrose, Green Alkanet, Comfrey and Ground-ivy (amongst others) will all attract the attentions of this bee. 

These Flower Bees are certainly characterful - the males in particular zip around at inordinate speed, interspersing that with bouts of immaculate hovering. The males frequently indulge in territorial disputes and can be witnessed chasing rivals away from their favoured flowers in a flurry of furious high-pitched wing beats. In fact, they're far more akin to Hoverflies, a world apart from our more ponderous, bumbling Bumblebees. Their life cycle is also entirely different as they're not a social species, they're a solitary bee - no colony, no workers, no queen. Sometimes this fact may appear incorrect; if nest conditions are favourable they may be seen communally in significant numbers, giving the appearance of a single colony. Their most frequent targets for nesting are old walls and soft mortar joints, though they're not entirely averse to ground nesting on the bare, clay soils of cliffs and quarries.  

Unusually this Anthophora also displays sexual dimorphism, where the males and females look remarkably different. The females are typically a little slower to emerge than the males, taking flight a couple of weeks later in the season. They're usually dark, (often black) with rusty pollen brushes on their hind legs and often approach flowers with their lengthy tongue extended. The males are somewhat more recognisable as they're most commonly buff-ginger-haired with a rather marvellous yellow lower face. During bouts of nectaring you may also observe a feature that gives the bee part of its name - plumipes, loosely translated as 'feather-legged.' This relates to a fringe of hairs, a feature used to more commonly split the bee from a much rarer cousin, the Potter Flower Bee (Anthophora retusa).

Hairy footed Flower Bee3

Hairy-footed Flower Bee - male © James Duncan

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1783237773.3690 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1783237773.39530.0263Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1783237773.39540.0001Server address: 216.73.216.53
1783237773.39550Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1783237773.39550Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/species-of-the-day-hairy-footed-flower-bee
    [s] => species-of-the-day-hairy-footed-flower-bee
    [1] => species-of-the-day-hairy-footed-flower-bee
)
1783237773.39570.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783237773.39660.0009 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1783237773.39820.0016 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1783237773.39870.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1783237773.40030.0016 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22643214
1783237773.40140.0011 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22643214
1783237773.40190.0005 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-05 07:49:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-05 07:49:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1783237773.4030.0011 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='species-of-the-day-hairy-footed-flower-bee')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-05 07:49:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1783237773.40540.0024 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783237773.40580.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2053 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-05 07:49:00'
1783237773.40660.0008 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1783237773.40720.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1783237773.40770.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=191 LIMIT 1
1783237773.40850.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=49 LIMIT 1
1783237773.40910.0007Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783237773.40930.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1783237773.41020.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-05 07:49:00' AND postSlug='species-of-the-day-hairy-footed-flower-bee'
1783237773.43140.0212Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783237773.43210.0007 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1783237773.43350.0014Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1783237773.43370.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1783237773.43450.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1783237773.43550.001 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783237773.43830.0028 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783237773.43930.0009 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783237773.44120.002Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1783237773.44130.0001 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783237773.44220.0009 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783237773.44270.0005 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783237773.44540.0027 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783237773.44650.0011 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783237773.44730.0008 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783237773.45420.0069 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783237773.4550.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1783237773.4570.002 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1783237773.45740.0004Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783237773.45760.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='1' LIMIT 1
1783237773.45810.0005Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1783237773.45840.0003 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='species-of-the-day-hairy-footed-flower-bee')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-05 07:49:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1783237773.46030.0019 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783237773.46060.0004 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783237773.46330.0027Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1783237773.46430.001 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2053 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1783237773.51280.0486 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1783237773.51310.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783237773.51330.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='1' LIMIT 1
1783237773.51410.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1783237773.51480.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1783237773.51550.0007 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783237773.51740.0019 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783237773.5180.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783237773.51990.0019 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783237773.5210.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783237773.52140.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783237773.52190.0004 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783237773.52430.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783237773.5250.0008 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783237773.5270.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783237773.53020.0032 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1783237773.53080.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1783237773.53120.0004 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783237773.53340.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783237773.53380.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783237773.53560.0018 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783237773.5380.0023 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783237773.53840.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783237773.53880.0003 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783237773.54090.0021 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783237773.54130.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783237773.54310.0018 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783237773.54450.0014Request time: 0.1771
1783237773.54450Process time: 0.1769
1783237773.54460Memory: 1.6244