White-tailed bumble bee - Bombus lucorum - Family: Apidae

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White-tailed bumble bee - Bombus lucorum
© Roger Key/English Nature

White-tailed bumble bee queens are one of the first bumble bee species to emerge following hibernation, often as early as mid-March. The queens then actively forage for nectar on a range of early flowering plants including white dead nettle, sallow and flowering currant. The large queens are easily recognised, having two lemon yellow stripes, one in front of the wings and another below the waist. The tail is pure white.

The workers of this species are smaller and can be easily confused with buff-tailed bumble bee workers, having duller yellow bands than the queens and an off-white tail. White-tailed bumble bees have a long nesting season and visit a wide variety of herbaceous and shrubby garden plants. This bumble bee is found in gardens and hedgerows and often nests underground in old vole nests. A large colony will support several hundred bees. Only the young fertilised queen survives the winter, having hibernated in a protected place such as in a hole or under moss. She emerges in spring and starts up her own colony or takes over an existing one.

The queen makes pots of wax and pollen into which the first eggs are laid. After about three weeks the first infertile females workers emerge and take over the nectar and pollen gathering and cell building, while the queen concentrates on egg laying. The larvae are reared on pollen and nectar. The males appear in summer and male and female bumblebees fly out and mate. Males are not allowed to re-enter the nest after mating and soon die. The fertilised queen starts searching for a safe place to hibernate but both the workers and the old queen now die with the first frosts or spell of cold weather.

A free leaflet, 'Help save the Bumblebee ... get more buzz from your garden', is available from English Nature or the National Trust.

Food

Nectar and pollen.

Plants

Bell heather, Black currant, Bloody crane's-bill, Borage, Broom, Bugle, Butterfly bush, Cardoon, Columbine, Common comfrey, Common figwort, Common thyme, Common toadflax, Crocus, Cross-leaved heath, Dead-nettle, Dropwort, Escallonia, False dittany, Flowering currrant, Foxglove, Globe thistle, Gorse, Harebell, Hazel, Hebe, Herb-Robert, Himalayan honeysuckle, Honeywort, Ivy, Jerusalem sage, Meadow clary, Meadow crane's-bill, Monk's-hood, Myrtle, Nectaroscordium siculum, Onion, Pincushion flower, Purple-loosestrife, Ragged-robin, Rock crane's-bill, Sage, Sainfoin, Scorpion weed, Sea-holly, Snapdragon, Spurge-laurel, Sweet scabious, Teasel, Viper's-bugloss, Virginia creeper, Water figwort, White dead-nettle, Wild clary, Woolly lamb's ear, Yellow-rattle

Predators

Badger, Wood mouse, Yellow-necked mouse