Buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris
Buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris © JerryL2008, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
This is one of the bumblebee species you are most likely to encounter in a garden in Britain.
The queens are particularly large and have a distinctive buff tail. The workers have a much whiter tail and it is very hard to tell them apart from white-tailed bumblebees, Bombus lucorum. However, unlike B. lucorum, B. terrestris workers usually have some brownish hairs at the front of their white tail. Both have golden bands, which are slightly darker in B. terrestris.
The queens usually hibernate over winter and emerge in early spring, but they are sometimes seen throughout winter. Colonies are often large and usually underground, but nests are sometimes made underneath objects or in cavities above ground.
