Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Is this one Bombus pascuorum ?, 1 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
I have soem around now that look like your last pic, I wonder if it's a second brood as they are larger than the first ones. Today the sun is shining in intervals, all the insects are scurrying to feed. I saw some like your last one, but some that must be the same bee but only about half the size.

The smaller ones feed on very small flowers, on Veronica spicata (?), I'm not sure which Veronica now without checking, but it is tall.

I think I read that this is the only bee here with no stripes on the thorax, what about B. sylastrum, somewhere it mentioned it's only sporadic in the south of England I think.

This tells the story, Ii really do think I have that as well, and some of the smaller bees may be these as the males and workers vary.

http://www.ukbap.org.uk/UKPlans.aspx?ID=156

This is one I took today of one of the larger ones like yours, which I feel sure is B pascuorum. It is much more hairy, but the one I think is the queen is more hairy still!



This message was edited Aug 17, 2007 2:26 PM