Only the queen Buff-tailed Bumblebee has a buff tail.
Confusingly, the male and worker Buff-tailed Bumblebees (shown on separate page) have a white or off-white tail and are easy
to confuse with workers of the White-tailed Bumblebee.
She has ice-picks to hold on to vertical surfaces. The bar on the upper thorax and the one on the abdomen are orange rather than yellow.
Buff-tailed Queens on flowers
More Buff-tailed Bumblebees
This one is suffering from parasitic mites on its back
As is this one, particularly near the eye
Buff-tail queen size comparison with pound coin
In fact, these parasitic mites on the back seem relatively common - apparent as she opens her wings
The face
The stinging part
Buff-tail queen size comparison with pound coin