CLOSED: Beautiful black bumble bee...

I found it today, in the afternoon taking a sunbath on the wall. It's large (about 2 cm) in size, entirely black except for a whitish band on the abdomen. I don't find it in my insect books nor on the web, also not among the cuckoo bees..

another view;

This is a queen, they are th eonly ones to survive over winter. I had pics of this one, and I have lost the email which told me all the names from the recording scheme! I'm sure with a little looking around I can find which it is, there is a thin line of stronger colour just above the white tail section.

For now, the NHM has charts which you can select from. I have gone to the one with a white tail.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/bombus/g300.html

thanks wallaby! But there is the difference that with my bee the whitish band is not at the very tip (which is black again) of the abdomen.
Perhaps its more clear in this pic;

in this one the white band is even hardly visible;

Another;

I think the black tip is normal, just not so covered in hairs, and what appears to be a black line in the middle of the white on one pic is more likely to be just the body colour. I found last year that at some angles they almost looked hairless.

I have been searching around, there's very few sites on Bumblebees. Even some of those named on the NHM site with a white tip have coloured bands elsewhere, but the queens differ to the workers. Some have the same pattern as queens, males often seem to.

I've also posted it to that local Nature Forum yesterday, but didn't get any response, perhaps it will have to stay unidentified. But thanks so much for trying to help!

This one could be the Heath Bumblebee, Bombus jonellus (rare dark form of a queen), I went back to the NHS and used the guide for all British species, the world one doesn't work on my computer.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/bombus/_key_colour_british/ck_wtails_nb.html

It likes heathlands and grasslands, drier locations. A little more info, it is present in Europe.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/bombus/_key_colour_british/ck_local_n.html

There's also a dark morp form of B. campestris, but it's a Cuckoo bumblebee and has a yellow tail tip. Yours has very hairy pollen baskets on the legs, cuckoo bb's don't have these as they don't make nests so have no need for them.

http://www.brisc.org.uk/bbck.php

Yes, the body shape of Bombus jonellus is very similar with mine, but here I found a pic. of a male that is supposed to be the same as the queen;
http://images.google.be/images?hl=en&q=Bombus+jonellus+&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
Another problem is its habitat; I think I've read on one of your links that bumble bees don't fly further than max.2 km from their nest and mostly only 700 to 800 m.
There are no heath lands in the surroundings, but there was a very huge wild flower-grass field in front of my house, sadly destroyed now by the building of a justice palace. But I do have some heathers in containers.
The old walls that enclose my garden have a lot of crevices, ideal for bumblebee nests though. I think some even make nests in old decaying wood stumps and I have plenty of these too.


What do you think about Bombus hortorum var.harrisellus ?
http://images.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http://www.earthlife.net/insects/images/hymenop/bombus2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.earthlife.net/insects/socbees.html&h=411&w=714&sz=71&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=_d6aS0EtFUcy_M:&tbnh=81&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBombus%2Bjonellus%2B%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

this is a cropped detail of the veins on its wings and I think it corresponds with the pict in the last link I gave;

Oh, I only noticed now that on your first link they mention a rare dark mainland form of B.jonellus, so perhaps it is that one ..

Bombus hortorum var.harrisellus being a pic of a female wouldn't have been around in January, it's only the Queen which survives over winter. There is practically nothing on a google about this one, there is a link to an 1800's Cambidrge journal download with a mention, besides that a forum with the same pic you posted. I have a feeling this one may be extinct because of this.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Bombus+hortorum+var.harrisellus+&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

As B. jonellus habitat also includes grasslands, and the meadow across from you has been disturbed, it is highly possible it is this one. As I can find no other with the white tail only I am fairly certain this is the one, but I haven't been able to search on the NHM site for other countries. It is however in Europe mainland.

A google search for Bombus jonellus Belgium brings up some links which may be interesting.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Bombus+jonellus+belgium+&meta=

On the 4th link down, springerlink, it states

"B. jonellus, was recorded in gardens, lowland heath. and on calcareous grassland"

Thank you so much, I'll mark it as solved. I hope if the nest of this queen has been destroyed it can make a new one in my garden.
Haven't seen it around any longer though...