Bee Cards

• Big bee with short hair, visible chitin and square 'boxy' head

• Females do not have pollen baskets

• Faded males with greyish looking bands can be seen in late summer

• Uses Garden bumblebees, and possibly Ruderal bumblebees, as hosts

• Big red tail covers over half the abdomen

• Tail colour can fade

• Small bees - Queens are small but wide

• Males are fluffy and have little yellow moustache!

• Rare where there is no bilberry

• Host to the Forest cuckoo bumblebee

• Small bee - seen later in the year

• Notch is black hairs - not wear and tear

• Like small White-tailed with longer faces and peach tail-trim

• Males like Early bumblebees but with black faces

• Late flying bee - forages into Autumn

• Black hairs at wing base - no black hairs on abdomen

• Resemble Common Carder and Moss Carder bee

• In south, more likely Brown-banded rather than Moss carder

• Queens have buff tails and are are UK's biggest bumblebees

• Workers and males have white tails (often with peach trim) and are very similar to White-tailed bumblebees

• If you see a bumblebee in winter it is most likely a Buff-tailed

Keynotes:

• General information to support identification

• Interesting notes about the bee

• Fluffy and ginger - patterns vary and can be quite dark

• Look like Brown-banded carder and Moss carder but with black hairs and are much more common

• Common carder queens are the earliest carder bees to be seen in Spring

• Found in wide range of habitats including gardens, parks, meadows

• The UK's smallest bumblebee

• Queens sometimes seen in February

• Males are fluffy and quite yellow, with fluffy yellow faces and red tail

• Found all over, especially gardens, parks, woods and brownfield sites

* Band colour ranges from pale yellow to dark ginger-yellow

*Tail colour varies from pale yellow to buff or ginger-yellow

• Only cuckoo with a yellow tail

• Variable appearance but always has shiny abdomen and dark wings

• Has all-black variant

• Earliest emerging cuckoo bee

• Small and fluffy; females have downcurved abdomen

• Males are variable but usually have distinctive white tail with black band and red tip

*Bands are lemon-yellow

*The collar is wider than rear band

• Dark form has no yellow bands - but always has white tail

• Has the longest tongue of any bee in the world

• Can have second nest cycle in the South of UK

• Very rare

• Emerge quite late - from mid-May

• Only found in the very north of Scotland and some islands

• Queens, workers and males have same pattern

• Likes wildflower meadows, machair and coastal dunes

*Wide collar but narrow rear band

• Boxy head, dark wings, visible chitin

• White tail has yellow trim on the sides

• Looks like a Southern cuckoo but is shaggier with central 'V' in tail

• Males have yellow abdomen band and are smaller than females

*Often have dark buff tail in the Shetlands and Western Isles

• Early flying - seen from February

• Like a small, fluffy Garden bumblebee with a short, wide face

• Males have fluffy, yellow faces

• Often have dark forms, especially queens

• Never has black hairs

• Occasionally has a brown band at top of abdomen

• Moss carder bees on Scottish and Channel Islands have dark form with black thorax and dark-ginger abdomen

• One of UK's rarest species

• Resemble Red-tailed bumblebees but have orange-red tail and orange leg hair; and male Red-shanked bumblebees have black (rather than yellow) faces

• Emerge quite late and usually gone by August

*Red tail fades to ginger or even yellow

• One of first bees to emerge - sometimes seen in February

• Males are very fluffy and quite yellow

• New queens can be flying until October

• Can hibernate communally

• Big bee with long body, thin hair and visible chitin

• No pollen basket - females have round legs with short hairs

• Males have pale-yellow bands and fluffy orange/red hairs on legs

• Use Red-tailed bumblebee as host

*Has an all black form - an all black bee is often a Ruderal

*White tail can sometimes have yellow hue

• Looks like a neat Garden bumblebee but bands are equal in width

• Also called the 'Large garden bumblebee'

• Reintroduction to the south of England in 2010's seems unsuccessful

• Long face is rounder than Garden and Ruderal bumblebees

• Often has two abdomen bands but this can be difficult to see

• Dark form has a buff tail

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

• Very rare

• Late emerging bee

• High-pitched buzz

• Likes flower-rich grasslands

*Collar is dark ginger-yellow

• Resembles Gypsy cuckoo bee but is neater, has gingery collar when new, and rear band is faint

• Males often have faint front-band on abdomen

• No pollen baskets

• Wings are darker than social bumblebees

*Has dark form with black thorax, but always has white tail

• Can look quite dark

• Likes to nest high up in trees, in bird boxes and house eaves

• Groups of males often seen flying around entrance to nest

• Queens can hibernate in dead wood before emerging in February