I’m a birder not a bugger, but lockdown has definitely been a time where I have been watching and finding out more about insects and other invertebrates. Necessity is not just the mother of invention but of research and interest too at times. Today’s offering is of a species seen a week or so back but I had to wait on confirmation of ID. Truth is ‘d got it wrong and the UK Bees, Wasps & Ants facebook page put me right.
I had thought this was a less common species, fooled by the ‘notch’ in one of the colour bands across the body. I should have followed my own advice; ‘when in doubt, assume the commoner species’.
Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terreststris
If you look very closely at the two photos above and the one below you can see the very faint buff-coloured line just fringing the top of the white tail band. There are other distinguishing features too, but struggling newbees like me found those too subtle.
Having said that it has spurred me to buying a fabulous book on bees which arrive on my birthday! Fieldguide to the Bees of Great Britain & Ireland*.
You will see a link below should you wish to buy this book, who knows, it might be cheaper on Amazon, but I very much favour keeping specialist booksellers extant and buy all my natural history books direct from the natural History Book Shop.
