BEE
Tetraloniella nana
During the summer, the bees Tetraloniella nana can be observed on the salt-pan levees, visiting the mallow flowers.
They nest in burrows dug in the ground. The males are equipped with long tentacles, with which they scent the females. The picture shows a female gathering thick pink pollen grains of the mallow between the long hairs on her hind legs. In Slovenia, the species lives at two fairly distant localities: along the Dragonja river, where it is especially common in the pans, and around the town of Podčetrtek in the Štajerska region. The mallows' pollen and nectar are the only food that these bees gather for their offsping.