This medium-sized species is one of our more distinctive mining bees, processing a sparse coat of pale brown hairs over much of the body, with a dense covering of golden hairs over the tip of the abdomen. The hindlegs are rather conspicuous, with pale orange hairs. Males are smaller and much hairier with a yellow marking of the lower half of the face. It gets its common name from its foraging preferences as it strongly favours yellow composite flowers, such as Cat’s-ear.  It is a very scarce bee in Ireland, limited to four known localities and classed as Critically Endangered here. Like many other species however, it is likely under-recorded.

Distribution in Ireland: Very restricted in Ireland, with two sites in south Wicklow, one in central Mayo, one in west Cork and one in south Kerry. Due to the rather large distances between these sites, there are probably intermediate colonies that have yet to be discovered.

Flight period: Early June – late July in a single generation.

Habitat: The two most recent Irish sites are a flat expansive blanket bog and the edge of a mixed woodland respectively. In Britain it inhabits a variety of sites but usually those which have light, often sandy soils such as coastal grasslands and dry heath.

Flowers visited: Oligolectic on yellow composite flowers (Asteraceae) in the daisy family, such as Cat’s-ear, Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Narrow-leaved Hawkweed etc.

Personal records: I have observed this species twice in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains (Co. Wicklow). Here I found a nesting aggregation of approximately 10 females, constructed on a flat area of dry soil at the edge of a small mixed woodland track. There were at least double the number of nesting holes, indicating that the aggregation could well have been larger. It is worth searching dry woodland edges and bogland margins with plentiful yellow composite flowers in June and July for this species.