A univoltine species; early April to late June, rarely July. In a West Sussex woodland in 1991, a female was encountered on 28 July (Else & Edwards, 2018). Amiet et al. (2004) give a flight period in Switzerland from the late March to mid-June
Parasites and predators: None recorded in Britain.
Remarks: The remarkable adaptation of the female galea is particularly well-developed in bee genera of various subfamilies (e.g. some Osmia, Proteriades and Andrena) which are oligolectic on certain genera in the Boraginaceae, including Anchusa and Heliotropum in the Old World (C. O’Toole, pers. comm.), and Cryptantha in the New World. These plant species often possess hidden petaloid anthers which produce small, but very sticky pollen grains. It is of interest that Nearctic Osmia which are oligolectic on these plants, have strongly hooked bristles on the galea, maxillary palpus and labial palpus (Parker & Tepidino, 1982). Females of a few Palaearctic Osmia have similar hooked hairs only on their labial palpi (not galea), and these hairs also seem to constitute a pollen-collecting apparatus, enabling the bees to forage from small flowers of Boraginaceae and Chenopodiaceae (Peters, 1974). The form of the enlarged anterior basitarsus in these species is considered to be an adaptation for removing pollen from the palpi.