Very tatty bee

[peterbolson]

I'm totally ignorant about bees but hoping to learn from this site
Found loads of these, mostly in poor condition, on knapweed. Is it possible to ID from this photo ? And what's the best angle to photograph bees from to get the important features ?
Peter

[eucera]

This is Bombus pascuorum

As far as the best "shooting angle" for bees it is quite difficult to know where to start.

Firstly, one has to understand that it is often completely impossible to determine bees to species level from a photograph, no matter how wonderful the photo is.

That being said, it clearly isn't always impossible, but in order to know the best angle to give you some sort of chance (among those species where there IS a chance) you would really need to know your way around the existing keys to know which species have characters that are large enough to be appreciated from a pic, and also where those characters lie. This will vary according to genus... and how many similar species there are within that genus. This may be something relatively simple (like the pattern of dots on the abdomen), to something more tricky (like the relative lengths of antennal segments, or the density of punctation on the thorax, the shape of the hind tibial spur etc.) to something really difficult, (like the gene sequences in mitochondrial DNA!). Usually though one is relying on a combination of characters, some clear, and some more obscure.

However, I can say that there are always things that photographers could do to make life easier for the identifiers - and, I am sorry to say, these are not generally done as a matter of course.
1) Always state WHERE the pics are taken (Locality + habitat).
2) Always state the DATE of the photograph
3) Any other ecological information that could help - especially FLOWER VISITATION.
4) Some idea of SIZE

This information may provide vital clues and could help rule things out

Finally. It should be remembered that there are 250ish species of bee in the UK (and about 2250 in Europe and 19.3k in the world). They are often very variable in coloration within a species, and also sexually dimorphic. Added to this, colour fades rapidly after emergence. So... Chinery is NOT going to provide many answers at the species level. Often he will illustrate the biggest bee in a genus, which may be one that is either not found in UK or is not typical of the bulk of species in the genus so a huge caveat on using general entomological guides as a source of answers

However, despite all the difficulties, it is always worth a try, and many of the pics here are good enough to permit an attempt of some sort. For instance, whilst browsing another site recently, it is possible that a species of social wasp new to Britain may have been photographed - so keep at it one and all!!!

[peterbolson]

That's a fantastically detailed reply eucera. Thanks so much for taking all that trouble.
Can I ask how you Ided it as B.pascuorum. I've just got a copy of the Naturalist's Handbook of Bumble Bees & didn't manage to ID it from the keys there ! Hopefully I'll improve
Peter

[eucera]

1) Its a brown bumble (There are 3 spp in UK with this colour pattern; B. pascuorum, B. humilis and B. muscorum)

2) There are some black hairs on the abdomen (Only B. pascuorum has these)

In Scotland, the situation is difficult because although B. humilis is absent from Scotland, B. pascuorum may have no black hairs at all.