Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Large black and white bumble bee.., 1 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
I spent last night taking moth pics and trying to ID some! I see the Forum is now the Insect & Spider ID forum.

I looked at the pic you gave on the unimass link, there is some pale yellow just visible on the right side above the white tail and at the top of the abdomen.

Regarding the black hairs on the tail tip, the BRISC site doesn't address B. vestalis, so it can't be discounted on that basis.

On the NHM site, which being what it is should be reliable, (Natural History Museum), they only shown a male form of B. bohemicus with yellow bands at top of abdomen as well as bottom of the thorax. The female has a white tail tip.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/bombus/_key_...

Now look at B. vestalis, there is a male form with only yellow banding at the top of the thorax, with none on the abdomen. It also shows a black tail tip, and as they don't usually have a bald tip then the hairs should be black also.

My last pics were only taken a couple of days ago, but as I think the queen in April is B. vestalis then it's a good bet they are also B. vestalis. That doesn't mean I don't have others though! I have some very confusing ones!

I find the description of the yellow bands differences confusing, looking at both on BWARS the top bands both look very dark. I find the same in other bumblebees too, some B. lucorum have very dark top yellow bands.

This is another on 30th June, not as big as the queen but still quite large. I also think this is B. vestalis.




This message was edited Aug 1, 2008 2:34 PM

This message was edited Aug 1, 2008 2:41 PM