Queen bee ID?

[diggleken]

Help!
is this a Bombus lucorum queen?
On my leg, on the Moors, yesterday.
Cheers
Ken

[Hedera]

Certainly looks like one. The sun is bringing them out now.

[JRsbugs]

It looks more like a Bombus terrestris worker to me, I've had some around for a while now.

Janet

[Geoff F]

It certainly looks very dark for Bombus lucorum.

[diggleken]

Thanks everyone - yes, I agree, I did think it a bit dark, so terrestris looks much better.
Michael Chinery kindly points out that white tailed workers could be confused with lucorum, very accurate in this case!
Excellent, cheers,
Ken

[Klaas Reißmann]

Hi,

it is a bit to early for a worker, so this is a queen, woken up, surching for some food and than starting its state.

Bombus is not easy for ID. Bombus terrestris is am aggregate of four species, Bombus terrestris, Bombus lucorum, Bombus cryptarum and Bombus magnus. I don't know which of these four species occur in GB, so I can't tell if an ID is possible. If it is more than only one of those four species I would call the picture Bombus-terrestris-aggregate.

Regards
Klaas

[JRsbugs]

Hi Klaas, Bombus terrestris now overwinters in the south here, and I have had what I feel certain a couple of workers, they are too small to be queens although I do have a variety of colours and sizes in the queens. There was a report I think of B. terrestris in early January foraging with snow on the ground!

I'm not aware of Bombus terrestris being included in the B. lucorum/cryptarum/magnus aggregrate.

[JRsbugs]

Here's two I had, the first on Crocus on 12th March which was big enough to be a queen, but unless we have the mainland variety here which has a white tail then it has to be a worker. The thin brown line above the white is typical of B. terrestris worker and they can be big. There is a possibility it is a queen as the white tailed form have been used in greenhouses for pollination and escapees could be on the increase.



This one was on Apricot blossom on 20th March, quite small and definitely a worker. I have back shots too, the top band is quite orange.

[diggleken]

Interesting stuff!
Thanks to Klaas and Janet for more info.
I suspect it wont help, but I have done a roughish estimate of size from my sock/leg and transposed to the bee, which was very big - I measure about 1.5'' across and 2'' long, body only.
Do workers come as big as Queens?
Hope that helps...............
Cheers
Ken

[eucera]

Further to Janet's comments above. B. terrestris is not part of the B. lucorum/cryptarum/magnus complex but the workers of B. terrestris are often quite difficult to separate form the lucorum group.

I received a report of male Bombus terrestris from France today