Another Bumblebee ID

[Matt Smith]

Originally Posted by JRsbugs

Second bee could also be B pratorum male, you would need to see the face to say for sure. I haven't yet seen B. lapidarius males this early but last year I saw one on 21st June so it's possible.

This is a definite B.lapidarius male. B.pratorum would have a much larger yellow collar and a yellow band at the base of the abdomen which this individual lacks.

We are having an early year for a lot of inects this year - I saw my first new queens and fresh males of B.lapidarius on 31st of May in Sonning Common.

[JRsbugs]

I'm seeing insects earlier too Matt.

The NHM charts do show male B. pratorum can be without the abdomen band, and it has it's head bent forward. The males I have are always with lots of yellow but it seems they are variable like the females are. You are probably right though.

BUMBLE BEES

[beech]

Thanks Matts and JR . I looked at the images taken at the Bumbles nest and none of them were good enough to show if a brown band was present. This I will recitfy.


I took these piscs of what I believe is a male Bumble I looked at B lucorum as it does have yellow hairs on the face, but the abodminal banding does not look right. B hortorum has a black face apparently and the hairs on the hind tibia are mostly black and project out at right angles to the legs. This does not seem to fit either with this individual, so I have opted for B jonellus male as it shows yellow hairs on the face, the yellow collar extends under the thorax and the anntennae do seem long relative to the body. I got all this out of a book so I could be very wrong, but is it a B jonellus male ?

[JRsbugs]

Looks like Bombus lucorum male, they are a complex of more than one species and are very variable. I have some very fluffy ones with lots of yellow, I've seen them about now too.

[beech]

Thanks JR . I take it the best way to tell the difference between B locurum and B jonellus males is the amount of yellow on lucorum and the fluffiness of the bees appearence?

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by beech

Thanks JR . I take it the best way to tell the difference between B locurum and B jonellus males is the amount of yellow on lucorum and the fluffiness of the bees appearence?

B. jonellus is rarer, and generally very shaggy in appearance but I personally think it might be difficult to tell with some. I think I had it once but I doubt anyone is going to give confirmation from photos even with good close ups. I am turning up all sorts in my location, anything seems possible. The suspect B. jonellus I had had a murky beige coloured tail and was loosely shaggy all over.

Look at the 'Rarer Bumblebees' then Heath Bumblebee on BBCT (I would prefer the scientific name as I often have to read the name under the photos to find out ). I can't vouch that all these are correctly named but I would imagine most are.

BBCT gallery

[Matt Smith]

Originally Posted by beech

Thanks JR . I take it the best way to tell the difference between B locurum and B jonellus males is the amount of yellow on lucorum and the fluffiness of the bees appearence?

Best way to tell males of these two species apart in the field is size. B.jonellus males are small bumbles the size of B.pratorum males. Essentially, if you are looking at bees and see a male "Bombus pratorum" with a white tail it is almost certainly B.jonellus. Workers are small too, but are more often confused with small B.hortorum workers.

B.lucorum males are relatively much bigger and look less "compact", in the field the two are easy to separate once you have seen both species a few times. B.jonellus is double brooded as well and timings are similar to B.pratorum, in a "normal" year 1st brood B.jonellus males start appearing in the first week of May, well before B.lucorum.

Looking at your pictures I am leaning towards a B.lucorum male. Ideally a shot from above to show the extent of the yellow banding would be good, as well as posting files at full size so they can be zoomed in more easily.

Overall, B.lucorum is very common and turns up in most places. B.jonellus is not rare and is widely distributed across the UK. It does well on heathlands but I have had indiduals turn up on chalk downland or grazing levels before. With workers and males the same size as B.pratorum I think it may sometimes get overlooked in amongst the abundance of B.pratorum at times.

[beech]

Thank you both for all the help. Matt the pics of the bumble shown above was quite large. I have some recently taken pics, which I have not posted of what I am almost certain are B pratorum males and the one above was much bigger than them. I tried to upload full size photos but was unable to do so, so will try another setting with any futrue pics and see if they upload in an attempt to increase size and hopefully clarity

[JRsbugs]

All you need to do is crop off the excess in the photos and save the extra pic, then you can upload the full version.

[beech]

Terrible pic I know .... but hopefully full size ....B pratorum male?