Dandelion - Dandy For Bees

I went bug togging outside the back door while the lunchtime soup was cooking. The light wasn't very good so I used the in-camera flash to capture this solitary bee on a much-maligned dandelion flower. (Let them bloom for the pollinators.) To the naked eye and without flash these insects look black. They are tiny and often overlooked - the bilobed stigmas of the flower give a sense of scale. I think it could be an Andrena, maybe Andrena miniutula the common mini-mining bee. This bee nests in light soil and is also known as the little sand bee.

It sat very still while I was photographing it and I thought it might be dead. I don't like photographing dead insects so I shook it out of the flower onto my hand to check. It remained motionless at first but the warmth of my hand revitalised it and it buzzed off. :)