Bee Cards

• Males are fluffier than females

• Large groups of males patrol nest sites

• Look like male Sandpit but with black legs; and Grey-Backed Mining bees but have clear grey bands

• Spring bee but occasionally new generation seen July and August

• Big bee, short hair, visible chitin, square head

• Third yellow band not always clear

• Females do not have pollen baskets

• Faded males with greyish bands seen late summer

• Use Garden bumblebee and Ruderal bumblebee nests

• Small round bees

• Males have fluffier yellow faces than females

• Big red tail covers over half the abdomen but colour can fade

• Rare where there is no bilberry

• Host to Forest cuckoo bumblebee

• Small bee - seen later in the year

• Like small White-tailed bumblebees but longer face and peach tail-trim

• Males with big tail trim may resemble Early bumblebees but have black faces

• Notch is black hairs - not wear and tear

• Small, fluffy, all ginger.

• Dark thorax has pale 'halo' around edge

• A few black hairs at wing base

• Late flying bee - forages into Autumn

• In south, more likely to be a Brown-banded rather than Moss carder bee

• Queens have buff tails and dark stripes

• Workers and males have white tails - they look like White-tailed bumblebees but may have a peach trim to top of tail

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

Keynotes:

• Additional information to support identification and general notes about the bee

• Fluffy and ginger with black hairs

• Patterns vary; can be quite dark

• Can resemble Tree bumblebees but never has white tail

• Earliest carder bee seen in Spring

• Covers nest with grass and moss

• Smallest UK plasterer bee, main one found in gardens and only one to nest in walls

• Difficult to identify - look like Ivy bees (but emerge earlier in year) and resemble honey bees (but not as smooth)

• Called Plasterer bee because female uses tongue to line cells with cellophane-like substance

• The UK's smallest bumblebee

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

• Queens sometimes seen in February

• Like most habitats

• Widespread and most common British bumblebee

• Only cuckoo bee with a yellow tail

• Males very variable, from almost all yellow to all black

• Females have black 'V' in yellow tail

• Always has shiny abdomen, often have dark wings

• No pollen baskets

• Earliest emerging, and smallest, British cuckoo bumblebee

• Front abdomen band can be very faint

• Females have very downcurved abdomen

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

• Has longest tongue of any bee in the world

• Face is long and thin

• Collar band is thicker than rear band

• All castes have same colour pattern

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

• Very rare - only seen in very north of Scotland and some islands

• Emerge quite late - from mid-May

• All castes have same pattern

• Likes wildflower meadows, machair and coastal dunes

• Boxy head, dark wings, visible chitin

• White tail has yellow trim on the sides

• Looks like a Southern cuckoo but with longer hair and central black 'V' in tail

• Males have yellow band at front of abdomen and are smaller than females

• Like small, round bumblebees with loud buzz

• Often fly with long tongue extended

• Fast, darting flight, can hover well

• Collect pollen on legs

• Males territorial and patrol nests and flowers

• Might use a home-made bee brick

• Early flying - from February

• Looks like a small, fluffy Garden bumblebee but with a short, wide face

• Males have fluffy, yellow faces

• Often have dark forms, especially queens

• Often have buff tail in Shetlands and Western Isles

• Banding varies from dark to almost orange

• Males' (Drones') huge eyes meet on head

• Legs often dangle down when flying

• If it's buzzing it's probably a Honey bee, if it's got skinny legs it's probably a solitary bee

• The only UK bee to make honey

• A Plasterer bee

• Last solitary bee to emerge in UK

• Resemble honey bees and other Plasterer bees but with very clear, broad abdomen bands

• Males slimmer than females

• First noted on UK mainland in 2001

• Very smooth, may carry pollen internally

• Use mandibles to excavate wood

• Females live up to 18 months and look after developing eggs

• Very small and difficult to find

• The only British Ceratina bee

• Wasp-like appearance, quite big and smooth

• Look a lot like other Nomad bees (e.g. Gooden's and Orange-Horned Nomad bees)

• Males sometimes have yellow dots on thorax

• Females flying around burrows can indicate presence of hosts

• May have golden 'halo' around thorax

• Occasionally has brown band at top of abdomen

• Never has any black hairs

• On Scottish and Channel Islands, has dark form with black thorax and dark-ginger abdomen

• Can be quite orange but variable

• Males have pale-yellow face hair

• Males emerge first and wait around for females

• Females use 'horns' to make nest cells from mud

• Pollen collected under abdomen

• Spend winter as adults in cocoons

• One of UK's rarest species

• Resemble Red-tailed bumblebees but have orange leg hair and orange-red tail

• Males variable but are dull with black faces; Red-tailed bumblebees have yellow faces

• Emerge quite late but usually gone by August

• Velvety, black bee

• Red tail fades to ginger or yellow

• Males are very fluffy and quite yellow

• One of first bees to emerge in Spring

• New queens can be flying until October

• Can hibernate communally

• Big 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

• Looks like a neat Garden bumblebee but the collar and rear thorax bands are equal in width

• White tail can sometimes have yellow tinge

• Has an all black form

• Also called the 'Large garden bumblebee'

• Reintroduction project in south of England in 2010's seems unsuccessful

• Long face but rounder than Garden and Ruderal bumblebees

• Often two abdomen bands but can be faint

• Dark form has buff tail

• Straw-coloured bands look 'washed-out'

• Very rare

• Late emerging bee

• High-pitched buzz

• Likes flower-rich grasslands

• Resembles Gypsy cuckoo bee but neater with gingery collar (when new)

• Has rear band, but this is faint

• Males often have faint front-band on abdomen

• No pollen baskets

• Wings are darker than social bumblebees

• Brown males less recognisable than females

• Females use mandibles to move soil

• Pollen collected on legs and thorax

• Seen in lawns, flowerbeds, footpaths

• Can form large aggregations

• One of over 65 Miner bees found in the UK

• Has black form but always has white tail

• Nest high up and large groups of males fly around nest entrance

• Queens can hibernate in dead wood

• Not keen on large, wide-open habitats

• First recorded in UK in 2001; now widespread

• First recorded in England in early 2000's

• A large carpenter bee - largest solitary bee seen in the UK

• Can be mistaken for a worn bumblebee

• Collect pollen on hind legs

• Females have strong jaws to burrow into wood

• A group of 3 different bees: White-tailed, Northern and Cryptic

• Males can have multiple pale-yellow abdomen bands

• Has all black form, but always has white tail

• Will nectar rob from deep flowers

• Circles cut from leaves indicate these bees

• Abdomen upturned and visible when foraging - and can look yellow if covered in pollen

• Males patrol flowers and hedges, driving other insects away

• Use bee hotels - overwinter as larva

• Big bees, males bigger than females

• Unusually, females emerge first

• Sometimes the yellow spots look rectangular

• Territorial males hover, dive, head-butt and use tail spines when fighting

• Females fly with balls of fibres in mandibles