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Shrill carder bee

Bombus sylvarum

Basic Information

Common name: Shrill carder bee
Scientific name: Bombus sylvarum

Pale, straw-coloured bee with wide black thorax band.

Only in key sites in south England and south coast of Wales.

Classification

Bee TypeBumblebee
StatusRare
Cuckoo StatusNon-cuckoo
Tail ColourGinger Tail

Keynotes

*Banding is straw-coloured and look a bit 'washed-out'

  • Very rare

  • Late emerging bee

  • High-pitched buzz

  • Likes flower-rich grasslands

Nest Information

  • Ground surface or just below in thick vegetation and tussocky grassland

Distribution

  • Very rare

  • Only found in South England and and localised sites in Wales

  • Habitat: sand dunes, health lands, salt-marshes, shingle beaches, chalk downs, brownfield sites

Castes

QUEEN

May
QUEEN diagram
No Photo

  1. Straw-coloured face

  2. Collar & rear bands*

  3. Multiple bands*

  4. Ginger tail

Tail:
Thorax:
Abdomen:
Head:

WORKER

June
WORKER diagram
No Photo

  1. Straw-coloured face

  2. Straw collar & rear bands

  3. Straw bands

  4. Ginger tail

Tail:
Thorax:
Abdomen:
Head:

MALE

August
MALE diagram
No Photo

  1. Straw-coloured face

  2. Straw collar & rear bands

  3. Straw bands

  4. Ginger tail

Tail:
Thorax:
Abdomen:
Head:

Flower Preferences

Long tongue. Likes red clover, dead-nettles and thistles.

  • Bird's-foot trefoils

  • Black horehound

  • Bristly oxtongue

  • Creeping thistle

  • Everlasting peas

  • Hedge woundwort

  • Knapweed

  • Ragwort

  • Red bartsia

🌼

Creeping thistle

🌼

Red clover

🌼

White dead-nettles