This weeks photo is of a industrious mining bee, working hard to provision her soon-to-be laid eggs. These eggs are laid in burrows dug in sandy soil with each egg being laid on a ball of pollen & nectar and sealed in a small cell. This poor bee is missing one her antennae but from the look of her pollen baskets (yellow lumps of moist pollen on the hind legs and thorax) she seems to be doing fine. Female Andrena like the bee above can be indetified by their “facial foveae”. These twin grooves are located on the face between the eyes and antennae and are filled with pale hair. Thanks to John S. Ascher at BugGuide for help with the ID.