Dasypoda hirtipes
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Dasypoda hirtipes, the common pantaloon bee or hairy-legged mining bee, is a species of solitary mining bee from the family Melittidae. It is a widespread bee which is found from Great Britain to China. Dasypoda hirtipes get one of their common names, the pantaloon bee, from the hirsute hind legs of the females which apparently swell up with pollen, deposited in the golden hairs of the hind tibiae as the bee forages making them look as if they are wearing pantaloons. The "pantaloons" make the females highly distinctive and easy to identify, otherwise they are a medium to large bee with yellowish-brown colouration on the thorax and the abdomen is banded with black and golden-brown. Males are less obvious but the abdomen is similar to the female's but their body is coated in long brown hairs. Their legs have longer hair than most bees but they do not have "pantaloons". As they age the sun can cause the colour of the males to fade to silvery-white.
Dasypoda hirtipes occurs across Eurasia from southern Britain to China. It occurs as far north as southern Finland and southern Scandinavia and south to North Africa and the Canary Islands. Within Britain... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Pantaloon Bee sighting in London on a given day, based on 47 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 492nd most-seen of the 1504 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Pantaloon Bee in London on a given day, against under 5% in September to June, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Pantaloon Bee sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 5 cities where we can rate Common Pantaloon Bee sightings, London ranks 3rd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Warsaw (Poland, about 10%) and Berlin (Germany, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Pantaloon Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in London (47 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
