White-tailed Bumblebee - Queen and Worker Bombus lucorum
The White-tailed Bumblebee is one of the more common bees; queens and workers have one yellow band on the upper thorax and one on the abdomen like their
Buff-tailed relatives.
The White-tailed queen has a white or off-white tail; the workers have white or off-white tails and are easy to confuse with Buff-tailed workers.
The White-tailed has yellow bands rather than orange and the differentiation on these pages is mainly on that basis, although, like the orange Carder, the sun does bleach the hairs over time.
The White-tailed queen has a white or off-white tail; the workers have white or off-white tails and are easy to confuse with Buff-tailed workers.
The White-tailed has yellow bands rather than orange and the differentiation on these pages is mainly on that basis, although, like the orange Carder, the sun does bleach the hairs over time.
She is large and could have a buff tail, but the straw yellow bands rather than orange have led to her
classification as a White-tail with an off-white tail.
White-tailed Bumblebee on flower (or is it a bleached Buff-tail?)
White-tailed Bumblebees on flowers. White-tailed bees have shorter tongues than some other bumblebees and
are "nectar robbers" on longer flowers, making a hole near the base to reach nectar without pollenating the flower (and
allowing other insects to access the same).
Probably true White-tailed Bees. Several other bumblebees also have white tails, but have a different pattern of markings
(Garden, Tree, Heath, Broken-belted and others including cuckoo bees).
The face. The White-tailed Bumblebee is native across Eurasia and workers are indistinguishable by sight
from workers of the Northern White-tailed, B. magnus (queen is larger) and the Cryptic Bumblebee, B. cryptarum.
There is also a Chinese "B. lucorum" which is apparently a different species.
Links:
Buff-tailed Worker and Male
White-tailed male
White-tailed female, Kazakhstan
Garden Bumblebee
Large Garden Bumblebee
Tree Bumblebee
white-tailed hoverfly