Digger Bees

Digger bees are active from spring to the end of summer depending on species. Some species are specialists, feeding on the evening primrose family as an example, and other species are generalists. Some native plants the various species will forage on include coreopsis, Harebells, Wild Geranium, Dutchman’s Breeches, milkweeds, beardtongues, Wild Bergamot, Great Blue Lobelia, ironweeds, thistles, Hoary Vervain, Solomon’s Seal and Virginia Bluebells. They also visit cultivated plants such as tomatoes, cherries, lavender and perennial sage. 

Digger bees are solitary, sometimes nest in dense aggregations and, as their name suggests, they are ground-nesters. A few species are communal—sharing a nest entrance—but they each have their own cells in which they lay their eggs. They like a wide variety of soils, from clay to sand to loam. Contrary to most ground-nesters though, some Anthophora bees like Anthophora abrupta really like clay soils and can be found nesting in adobe house walls. These species use water to help soften the clay for moulding the nest. They create a chimney-like turret marking their nest entrance. 

One species (Anthophora terminalis) do not nest in the ground but rather in cavities in pithy stems or rotting wood. They can be recognized by the orange hairs on the tip of their abdomen. 

Anthophora are very fast-flying bees that tend to hover in front of the flowers they forage.