Chocolate Mining Bee

Andrena scotica females are similar in size to a honey bee (Apis mellifera), larger than most of its congeners. They possess very small pollen baskets or flocci on their hind legs and the long, pale scopae are dark on distally and curly proximally. They have a covering of fine brown to orange hairs, which is denser on the thorax, with face being the same colour. There is a fine covering of shorter hairs on the abdomen and the hind tibia is dark. Northern populations of A. scotica tend to be more extensively dark-haired than the southern populations. The smaller males have a wholly black abdomen too. There is an apical tooth on the mandibles but the cheeks normally lack a spine. As well as being smaller than the females they are also comparatively slender. A. scotica measures between 10 and 14 mm in length.

Andrena scotica is endemic to Europe where it is found in Ireland east to Poland and the Czech Republic, south to Italy and north to southern Scandinavia and Finland.