Garden bumblebee, Bombus hortorum
Garden bumblebee, Bombus hortorum © Rasbak, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Garden bumblebees are medium-sized bees that emerge in late spring. They are not often seen in late summer. Due to their long tongue, they prefer deep flowers such as foxglove and honeysuckle.
They usually have 2 yellow bands on their thorax and another at the front of their abdomen, as well as a band of pale hairs towards the rear. Entirely black forms of Bombus hortorum are rare.
Garden bumblebees nest below the surface of the ground and sometimes under objects in small colonies.
This bumblebee is often confused with the larger Bombus ruderatus, but the white tail hairs of that species usually extend further forwards at the sides of the abdomen than in the middle, whereas in B. hortorum the front edge of the white hairs form a straight line across the abdomen.
