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Red-tailed Mason Bee
Osmia bicolor
Osmia bicolor, the two-coloured mason-bee, is a Palearctic species of bee in the genus Osmia. It is outstanding amongst other megachilid bees in that it nests in empty snail shells.
From the article Osmia bicolor on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Osmia bicolor females are small bees, 12 mm in length, with a black head and thorax and an abdomen covered in bright ginger hair. In the males the ginger colour of the abdomen is less intense.
Range & habitat
Osmia bicolor is found in Europe and western Asia from southern Great Britain in the west east to Turkestan, it is found as far north as southern Scandinavia and Finland, and south as far as Spain and Romania. It occurs in grasslands and open deciduous woodland over calcareous soils underlain by rocks such as limestone and chalk.
Wikipedia: “Distribution and habitat”
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Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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Every page naming Osmia bicolor in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 207574.