| Hymenoptera | ||
| Bumble Bees and Cuckoo Bees in Nottinghamshire | ||
| 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 bees which nest above ground, all the Bumble Bees featured here, form nests at (or below) ground level, but this page now features three Cuckoo Bees, which are cleptoparasites of two of our most familiar Bumble Bee species. | ||
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| Brief life
history There are three castes within the colony - queen (fertile female) drone (male) and worker (infertile female). After pairing in the late Summer and Autumn, only the young queens survive through the Winter to start new colonies the following Spring. In more recent years, there has developed an increasing trend for new colonies to be started by the queens of some species, the same Autumn after pairing. 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 and Winter flowering Heathers. Nests are typically rather small, but colonies can number several hundred workers towards the end of the Summer. Nest sites vary between species, but old mice nests below ground and within grass tussocks are favourite locations. The nest cells are clumped together, rather than the more architecturally constructed nests and cells of Wasps. |
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| Cuckoo
Bees Cuckoo Bees previously had the latin name Psithyrus, but now come under Bombus. They are so called because of their habit of finding a nest of their host species and infiltrating it. Cuckoo Bees have no worker caste, only males (Drones) in late Summer and Autumn and females (queens) which are most frequently seen in Spring. |
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Only the
young Cuckoo Bee queens over-winter and emerge later than
their hosts the following Spring, to take over a nest of
their host species. The existing queen is usually killed
and the Cuckoo Bee queen takes over the colony and
produces her own eggs, which the existing workers tend,
till new male and female Cuckoo Bees emerge during the
Summer months. Identification of some species is extremely difficult by photographs. Several species are supposedly common across much of the UK. Bumble/Cuckoo Bee identification Bumble Bee identification is quite difficult. The more photographs you take, or the more Bumble Bees you look at - the more variation between adults of the same species you see. However, the species' shown on this page are all common throughout the lowlands of the UK and whilst some similar species can only be separated by careful examination, most are relatively straight forward and we have included some of the key identification features for each species. 1. One of the key features of Cuckoo Bees, is the complete absence of pollen baskets. On normal Bumble Bees, the hind tibia is completely bare and shiny (see right hand photograph) whilst the tibia of all Cuckoo Bees are hairy. 2. Single orange or yellow band on thorax and with no other large orange or yellow band on the abdomen, is distinctive of some Cuckoo Bee species. 3. Single thin yellow/orange band or patches on abdomen, as in the Cuckoo Bees B. bohemicus and B. vestalis, compared to B. hortorum on the right. |
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Garden
Bumble Bee Bombus
hortorum
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| Distinguishable by the three yellow bands (two in the thorax and one on the abdomen) and white tail. Only the queen is illustrated. | ||
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| Red-tailed
Bumble Bee 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 have two yellow bands on the thorax and the red tail. The Queen is illustrated. | ||
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| White-tailed
Bumble Bee Bombus
lucorum
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| B. lucorum is similar to B.terrestis, and best distinguished by it's more lemon yellow banding, rather than the typical darker yellow banding of B. terrestis . There are two yellow bands (one on both thorax and abdomen) and the end of the abdomen is pure white. The distinctly yellow male is shown below right. Queen (left) and male (right) are illustrated. | ||
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| Common
Carder Bumble Bee Bombus pascuorum |
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| Unlikely to be confused with any other Bumble Bee found in Nottinghamshire, but there are much rarer (and similar) Carder Bees elsewhere in the UK. Thorax and end of abdomen orange/brown. Worker (left) and queen (right) are illustrated. | ||
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| Bombus
hypnorum
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| Bombus hypnorum is the newest Bumble Bee species to colonise the UK, first arriving in 2001. It has rapidly spread north and finally reached Nottinghamshire in 2009, where it was first recorded from Worksop. Other Nottinghamshire records quickly followed in the early part of 2010, before we found what is believed to be Nottinghamshire's fifth record, at Gamston Wood near Retford in July 2010. Bombus hypnorum is a distinctive tri-coloured and easily recognised Bumble Bee, that stands out clearly from the much commoner Bombus pascuorum. It's spread is expected to continue and it is likely to become increasingly common throughout Nottinghamshire over the next few years. 2011 has seen a dramatic increase in the number of sightings based on our own records. | ||
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| Early
Nesting Bumble Bee Bombus pratorum |
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| One (usually) two yellow bands with the end of the abdomen orange. Often nests very early in the year and we have seen workers as early as late February and early March on Sallow flowers. Only the queen is illustrated. | ||
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| Buff-tailed
Bumble Bee Bombus
terrestris |
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| B.terrestris is only likely to be confused with the similar B. lucorum (see above identification differences) In B.terrestris, the end of the abdomen is usually buff coloured and generally appears less white or as distinct as that of B. lucorum. Only the queen is illustrated. | ||
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| Bombus
barbutellus |
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| Bombus barbutellus seems to be an uncommon Cuckoo Bee species in Nottinghamshire. This Queen was photographed in an open grassy area of Sherwood Forest CP in April 2010, but although it's ID was suspected as being B. jonellus at the time, later confirmation of the correct ID came in early 2011. Bombus barbutellus is a Cuckoo Bee of B. hortorum. | ||
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| Bombus
bohemicus |
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| Bombus bohemicus queens take over the nests of the White-tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus lucorum) B. bohemicus is visually almost identical to Bombus vestalis, but the thin yellow band/line of hairs seperating white from black sections on the abdomen, are a slightly darker yellow and more restricted in bohemicus than vestalis. | ||
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| Bombus
rupestris |
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| Bombus rupestris takes over the nests of the Red-tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus lapidarius) It's wings are much darker than B. lapidarius and it shows a typical southerly UK distribution. | ||
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| Bombus
vestalis |
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| Bombus vestalis takes over the nests of the Buff-tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus terrestris) and shows a more southerly distribution in the UK. | ||
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