Red
Mason Bee Osmia rufa  |
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| One of the
commonest solitary bees around is Osmia rufa,
more commonly known as the Red Mason Bee. Both sexes are
densely clothed with reddish brown hairs, with the male
having a dense tuft of white hairs on the front of the
head, with the female's head being entirely dark
brown/black. The species has an annual life-cycle and is
active in spring and early summer, from late March
through to the end of June. The adult's life span is
relatively short, the female making small nests of a few
cells within simple holes in walls and wood. The cavity
is filled with a supply of pollen and then closed up. The
larvae then develop and pupate, but don't emerge until
the following Spring. Artificial nest sites can easily be made by erecting a wooden post and drilling plenty of holes in one side, to a depth of a few centimetres. This is something that we have done in an old Elm trunk in our own garden with instant success. In the wild, bees would make use of old beetle borings in trees. The Red Mason Bee is an excellent pollinator of rosaceous fruit crops and a wide range of garden flowers and is of enormous benefit to the gardener (especially with today's relative scarcity of Honeybees) |
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| UK distribution of Osmia rufa |
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 The UK distribution maps on eakringbirds.com are provided by the National Biodiversity Network (NBN Gateway) Each red square on the map indicates species present in 10km grid squares. Updated September 2011 |
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