| Bumble Bees | ||
| Bumble Bees are known to everyone and the various species' make up one of the most familiar group of insects. Whilst some bees are solitary, Bumble Bees are social insects, forming small colonies during the Spring and Summer months. | ||
| Unlike some solitary bees
which nest above ground, all the Bumble Bees featured
here, form nests at (or below) ground level. Nests are often in old Field Mouse or Shrew nests and the B. pascuorum nests I have found over the years, have all been within grass tussocks. The nest cells are clumped together, rather than the more architecturally constructed nests and cells of Wasps. After pairing in the late Summer/Autumn, only the young Queens survive through the Winter to start new colonies the following Spring. But there is a seemingly increasing trend for new colonies to be started the same Autumn after pairing if conditions are favourable. Both Queens and workers are now sometimes recorded during mild Winter days in the south-west UK. It seems that a favourite nectar source at this time of year are the flowers of Mahonia. |
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| Bumble Bee identification is quite difficult. However, the species' shown here are all common throughout the lowlands of the UK and whilst some similar species can only be separated by careful examination, these are relatively straight forward. | ||
Bombus
pascuorum  |
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| Unlikely to be confused with any other Bumble Bee found in the area, but there are much rarer (and similar) Carder Bees elsewhere in the UK. Thorax and end of abdomen orange/brown. | ||
 B. pascuorum worker photographed June 15th 2005 |
 B. pascuorum worker photographed June 15th 2005 |
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| Bombus
lapidarius |
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| A very easy species to identify. The Queen and workers are entirely black, with a large red patch at the tip of the abdomen. Males (Drones) do have two yellow bands on the thorax. | ||
 B. lapidarius worker photographed July 20th 2005 |
 B. lapidarius male photographed July 17th 2005 |
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| Bombus
lucorum |
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| B. lucorum is very similar to B.terrestis, and best distinguished by it's more lemon yellow banding, than the typical darker yellow banding of B. terrestis . The end of the abdomen of B. lucorum is also pure white, but it can still be confused with a B. terrestis which has little buff colouration at the end of the abdomen. However, the buff colouration is often distinct enough to make identification failry easy. | ||
 B. lucorum queen photographed June 11th 2005 |
 B. lucorum male photographed July 20th 2005 |
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| Bombus
terrestis |
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| B.terrestis is only likely to be confused with the similar B. lucorum (see above identification differences) In B.terrestis, the end of the abdomen is usually buff coloured and generally appears less white or as distinct as that of B. lucorum. | ||
B. terrestis queen photographed June 11th 2005 |
 B. terrestis queen photographed March 10th 2007 |
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| Bombus
pratorum |
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| One (usually) two yellow bands with the end of the abdomen orange. B.pratorum is commonly referred to as the Early Nesting Bumble Bee. | ||
 B. pratorum queen photographed April 26th 2006 |
 B. pratorum queen photographed April 26th 2006 |
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