A univoltine species. The flight period is from late June to mid September, or (in Cyprus at least) October and November. There is also an early record in April (Mavromoustakis, 1948; 1952). The late records are likely to represent a partial second generation. Stanisavljevic (2000) states that it is active from June to August.
Parasites: The megachiline bee Stelis breviuscula is almost certainly a cleptoparasite of this species in Britain, as elsewhere in Europe. Stelis phaeoptera is also an alleged cleptoparasite (Möschler in Blüthgen, 1919). Other inquilines reported for this species are the gasteruptiid wasp Gasteruption jaculator (Höpper, 1904a), a chalcid in the genus Melittobia, a clerid beetle in the genus Trichodes, and a bombyliid fly in the genus Anthrax (Correia, 1976). Anthrax aethiops has also been reared from a French Heriades truncorum nest (Laboulbène, 1873). Peeters, Raemakers & Smit (1999) also list the Sapygid wasp Sapygina decemguttata, and this is supported by Jacobi (Pers. comm.)
Banaszak & Romasenko additionally list Stelis minima, S. minuta, S. jugae, Trichrysis cyanea, and Chrysis cerastes, but some of these require confirmation.
Conservation: Falk (1991) questions the status of this species in Britain, summarizing this as “Insufficiently Known”. This was based on the belief that the female only builds it cells from conifer resin. He considers such trees to be adventive in southern Britain and, therefore, the bee also. However, this supposition is incorrect as the bee will also collect resin from broad-leaved trees for its nests (Westrich, 1989). Indeed, the bee is sometimes found in sites where there are no conifers.