Identification guide to Bumblebees needed

[Ferret]

I have agreed to do some voluntary survey work for a farmland charity this year and one of the groups they would like me to look at is Bumblebees, not a group of insects of which I have a fantastic amount of knowledge , so does anyone have a suggestion for a good identification guide to Bumblebees. I’d prefer one that has detailed drawings rather than photos but one with both would be best. I already have a couple of simple guides but would like something that I could rely on to give me positive identifications, I will have access to microscopes if needed.

Thanks, Ferret

[aeshna5]

I would recommend the recently revised:

Field Guide to the Bumblebees of GB + Ireland by Edwards/Jenner

There are photos, but also colour codes to assist ID, though these insects are never easy.

[RobSutton]

Field Guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain & Ireland
Mike Edwards & Martin Jenner
2nd Edition 2009
ISBN 9780954971311
approx £12

A lovely book.

[eucera]

I wish you luck. Bumbles are surprisingly difficult to determine accurately to species level (even some of the common species). It is unwise to rely entirely on hair colour as this can vary between the sexes and castes and there is also a lot of intra-species variation too. Added to this, there are more species than colour patterns! To get somewhere near decent accuracy, you will almost certainly need to pin a few.

I think the doyen of Victorian bumblebeemen (Edward Saunders) had it about right when he wrote in 1896:

“The species of Bombus are exceedingly difficult to distinguish apart, the colour of the pubescence varies so greatly in different specimens of some species that it is wise to rely only on structure as a character in the discrimination of species; these characters are often very obscure, and difficult to appreciate”