Garden Bumblebee
Bombus hortorum
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Has the longest tongue of any British bumblebee — long enough to reach the base of a foxglove.
A long-bodied bumblebee with three yellow bands — one at the front of the thorax, one at the back, and one on the first abdominal segment — which run together to look like a single broad yellow band across the middle, and a white tail. The head is noticeably long. Garden bumblebees are common in gardens, hedgerows and woodland edge around Dumfries.
Behaviour
The tongue can be as long as the bee's whole body and is carried tucked under the head in flight. That reach opens up deep flowers no other bumblebee here can service properly — foxglove, honeysuckle, comfrey, vetch, aquilegia — making this bee a disproportionately important pollinator of long-tubed plants. Nests are usually just below ground or in dense vegetation.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Bees (Apidae)
- Size
- Queens 19–22 mm
- Status
- Native; common, and a key pollinator of long-tubed flowers
Photo by Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons