Red-tail

Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) on Creeping Thistle

Once we get past the occasionally chilly days of earliest spring, one of our commonest garden visitors is the industrious Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius). They're still going strong now, long after many of the other bumblebee species have disappeared for the year. This is one of the easiest British bumblebees to identify; the red backside on an otherwise black bumble is distinctive. Female workers and queens show this pattern, while males also sport yellow hairs on their faces and a golden band across the front, and sometimes the rear, of their thorax (the part of their body where their wings attach). Queens measure nearly an inch long (20-22 mm), while smaller workers may be little bigger than a house fly. The colour of the hairs on their pollen baskets (structures on their hind legs) distinguish them from several rarer relatives. This is one of the UK's "Big 7" – among its most common bumblebees. It occurs in a wide range of habitats right across Britain, and continues to expand northwards in Scotland. Like many bumblebees, these nest underground, often in abandoned rodent burrows or under slabs, stone walls or rocks. A typical colony holds 100-200 workers. As with all bees, they feed on nectar and pollen. They are important pollinators, visiting a wide variety of plants up to a mile (1750 m) from their nest and continuing to feed at higher temperatures than many other bumblebee species. They fly from April through November, so will continue to entertain us for some time yet.

Check out those packed pollen baskets (the yellow blobs)! And you can see her busy tongue here too.