Bumble Bee for ID

[James M]

Hi all, I'm trying to fine tune my Bee IDing skills and considering they are almost none exsistant that'll be quite a task lol. Anyway, looking through some old photo's came across this one, at a guess is this a male B. lapidarius? Going to have got that completly wrong now




Right here's the photo

[James M]

Whoops, forgot the photo *doh*, give me two ticks.

[James M]

Ok uploaded the photo now.

[Kayleigh]

Lovely pic James but Im in the same boat as I cant tell the difference either

[James M]

Thanks Kayleigh , I know it's tricky isn't it? especially when you get to the white and yellow banded bumbles, they all look the same to me lol

[JRsbugs]

It's a queen or worker (female) Bombus pratorum. They are early, the female workers and males are both out and about (workers have been about for some time) along with new queens. The queens are quite small compared to other Bombus, they can vary in size though. The workers can be very small, as can the males, very variable in size.

Males have different colour forms, but have yellow hairs on the face, females and queens have black.

Janet

[James M]

Thanks Janet

I have another pic of another bumble, is this a male?

[JRsbugs]

Yes that is the male, they have much more yellow hair than the females!

[James M]

Thankyou yes they do, I think with the orange tail they're one the best looking Bumbles in Britain, although I'd love to see a B. monticola looking like this
(Photo by lovfinion)

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by James M

Thankyou yes they do, I think with the orange tail they're one the best looking Bumbles in Britain, although I'd love to see a B. monticola looking like this
(Photo by lovfinion)

Me too! Lol, you wouldn't mistake that one!