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Bumblebee Identification – Entry level What is a ?

— Furry — Fat, round, large — Buzzing — Pollen baskets (females only)

— Stripes are on hair, not exoskeleton underneath

Wanna-! Wanna-bees!

Drone Fly Eristalis pertinax Hover fly Merodon equestris Tachinid Fly, Tachina ursina

Bee Fly Bombylius major

Size Getting started

• Not very useful for ! — Start with queens in spring • 10-25mm long

• Queens biggest — Good chance to become familiar with common species • Workers, males c. 2/3rds queen size — few, if any workers • Size varies with nutrition — no males

— Generally don’t vary much, and are relatively fresh and unworn

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Queens Workers

• Queens from late Feb-March till Sept/Oct • Workers are usually smaller versions of the queens

— Biggest bees

— Often slow-flying, investigating holes or crawling through vegetation

Workers Workers

• Workers are usually smaller versions of the queens • Workers are usually smaller versions of the queens

— Separating Buff-tailed and White-tailed workers is not easy so — workers have a reduced or absent abdominal band we can record workers of these as being: Buff-tailed/white-tailed

Abdominal band present Band is missing

Early bumblebee queen Early bumblebee worker Buff-tailed worker White-tailed worker

Males Males

• Males from late May/June for some early species, or in early years Extent of yellow varies a lot even in a single species — Often have more pronounced facial hair than females

—Often yellow (esp: red-tailed, early, heath and white-tailed White-tailed males bumbles)

— Appear more yellow and ‘scruffy’ – furry & fuzzy

—Extent of yellow varies a lot even in a single species

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Cuckoo bumblebees Cuckoo bumblebees

— Sub-genus — Dark appearance – females of most species have only one well-defined band, near the head — No pollen baskets — Sometimes have very dark wings — Some species have a ‘notch’ in the white of the tail — Sparse hairs — All short-tongued

♀ bumblebee ♂ bumblebee ♀ cuckoo ♂ cuckoo

Cuckoo bumblebees Getting started

Red-tailed cuckoo Forest cuckoo Bombus rupestris ♀ Southern cuckoo ♀ ♂ ♂ ♀ ♂

♀ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♂ ♂ melanic

Gypsy cuckoo Field cuckoo Barbut’s cuckoo

Getting started Tail colour

—Also look at extent and position of colouration Facial Legs hair

Banding Antennae

Tail colour Bumblebee (Behaviour) ID

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Banding Faces

— Surprisingly easy to see the hair colour on bumblebee faces — Can be useful in separating males and —Position females: — Males of 4 of the 8 commonest species have yellow faces when the females have black faces — Face shape is useful to separate some species —Strength

Legs Legs

— Only female social bumbles (not cuckoos) will carry pollen loads — Not always carrying pollen – look closely at hind leg for pollen basket

Antennae Behaviour

— Females have short, 12-segemented — Useful for separating male and female social bumblebees & cuckoos antennae — Female social bumblebees (queens & workers) tend to always be — Males have long, 13-segmented working antennae — Queens will fly low when looking for nests — Males & cuckoos often lazily feed on flowers, slowly drinking and not flying very much

Male

Female

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The Big 8: Common & widespread bumblebees Bumblebee groups

White-tailed bumblebee, Early bumblebee, Tree bumblebee, Ginger bees Red-tailed bees White-tailed bees Bombus pratorum Buff-tailed bumblebee, Common B. pascuorum B. lapidarius B. lucorum* B. pratorum B. terrestris Queen, Queen, Male B. hypnorum worker worker Male Queen, Queen B. jonellus worker, male B. hortorum

Worker & male Scarce / rare B. muscorum B. monticola B. ruderatus Heath bumblebee, B. humilis B. ruderarius B. soroeensis Red-tailed bumblebee, B. distinguendus B. sylvarum B. subterraneus Common carder , Bombus B. cryptarum* Garden bumblebee, pascuorum B. magnus*

Cuckoos B.campestris B. rupestris B. vestalis

Queen Queen, B. bohemicus Queen, worker, worker, B. barbutellus male male B. sylvestris Male

* Cryptic species in the B. lucorum complex

Ginger bees - common Common Carder,

• All-ginger • Black abdominal hairs Ginger • Cream thorax sides (uniform-tailed) • Males yellower bumblebees

1 common 3 scarce

1 cuckoo SIMILAR: B. muscorum, B. humilis, B. distinguendus, B. campestris

Red-tailed bumblebees

Early bumblebee Red-tailed B. pratorum bumblebees

Red-tailed bumblebee B. lapidarius

2 common 3 scarce

1 cuckoo BEWARE: B. monticola, B. ruderarius, B. sylvarum, B. rupestris

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Red-tailed bees - common Red-tailed bees - common Early bumblebee, Bombus pratorum Red-tailed bumblebee, Bombus lapidarius

• Only common yellow-banded, red-tailed females • Elongate species • Males have a yellow face • Males have a yellow face • Worker often loses abdominal band • Tail red, up to half the abdomen • Tail often small, pale • Female corbicula hairs black

SIMILAR: B. ruderarius, B. monticola, B. sylvarum, B. rupestris SIMILAR: B. ruderarius, B. monticola, B. sylvarum, B. rupestris

White-tailed bumblebees (two yellow bands)

White-tailed bumblebee White-tailed B. lucorum (agg.) bumblebees

(two yellow bands) Buff-tailed bumblebee B. terrestris

2 common 3 scarce

3 cuckoo BEWARE: B. soroeensis, B. subterraneus, B. vestalis, B. bohemicus, B. sylvestris

White-tailed bees - common White-tailed bees - common Buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris White-tailed bumblebee, Bombus lucorum s.s.

• Queens buff-tailed • No yellow hairs in tail • Workers & males white-tailed • Males have a yellow face • Sometimes thin yellow band at tail top • Queens identifiable; males maybe • Workers often impossible

SIMILAR: B. soroeensis, B. lucorum agg., B. vestalis, B. bohemicus SIMILAR: B. soroeensis, B. terrestris, B. vestalis, B. bohemicus

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White-tailed bumblebees (three + yellow bands)

Garden bumblebee White-tailed B. hortorum bumblebees

(three+ yellow bands) Heath bumblebee B. jonellus

2 common 2 scarce

1 cuckoo BEWARE: B. ruderatus, B. sylvestris, B. bohemicus, B. barbutellus, B. subterraneus

White-tailed bees - common White-tailed bees - common Garden bumblebee, Bombus hortorum Heath bumblebee, Bombus jonellus

• Bulky, very long tongue • Strong association with heaths • Long face • Males have a yellow face • Pure white tail • Smaller, longer-haired than hortorum • Very yellow appearance • Round face • Occasional semi-melanics

SIMILAR: B. ruderatus, B. jonellus, B. bohemicus, B. barbutellus SIMILAR: B. ruderatus, B. hortorum, B. bohemicus, B. barbutellus

White-tailed bees - common Tree bumblebee, Bombus hypnorum

• New to Britain 2001 • Black thorax sides White-tailed • Dark-thorax colour form common • T1&2 sometimes ginger • Tail always white (even melanics) bumblebees • Spreading northwards (ginger thorax)

1 common 0 scarce

0 cuckoo SIMILAR: worn B. pascuorum

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www.beewalk.org.uk/node/11 Field kit ID guides & further reading

Gammans, Comont & Perkins (2018). Bumblebees: An • Nets (Watkins and Doncaster) Introduction. Biddles

Edwards, M and Jenner, M. (2009) Field Guide to • Hand lens - x10 or x20 the Bumblebees of & . Ocelli Limited

Prys-Jones, O.E and Corbet, S.A (2011) Bumblebees (Naturalists’ • Sample tubes Handbook). Pelagic Publishing

Falk, S. and Lewington, R. (2015) Field guide to the bees of Great • Queen marker cages (Thornes or W&D) Britain and Ireland. Bloomsbury

• ID book Comont, R. (2017) RSPB Spotlight: Bumblebees. Bloomsbury

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