Bumblebees

Worker of buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Bumblebees can be a suitable subject for school exercises. We provide an on-wiki key here that can be printed as well as used interactively. Wiki keys can be easily copied to a different wiki page and modified for school projects. This key is based on the bumblebee key by Paul Williams from the NHM in London, UK. On that side much additional information about the species, their distribution and biology can be found. The re-cast into the present format here is authorized by Paul Williams.

The motivation to recast the existing English-language key here is to simplify its adaptation to other regions and languages, so it can be used in a variety of Key to Nature projects.

Working Plan:

1. Check the copy of the British key to the current environment for correctness
2. Modify it for Central Europe / Netherlands / Germany / Austria regions
3. Translate it to German and Dutch
4. Add further regions where possible and translate.

General note: The key below is not already cut down into one or few couplets per web page. We currently develop a tool that will make such a key "playable" in a couplet-by-couplet mode. Thus, the key rendering below should be evaluated as a long-term archive as well as printing format, not as a user interface. Suggestions how to improve the key display are most welcome!

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1 Introduction

This is a simple key to British bumblebees. It is intended for people with no specialist knowledge of bumblebees but who do have a bee or pictures of a bee to compare it with the key.

Make sure that your specimen is indeed a bumblebee: Some flies, moths, or beetles look deceivingly like bumblebees (they "mimic" a bumblebee). Unlike these other insects, bumblebees have: (1) clear or slightly cloudy membranous wings without scales; (2) two wings on each side that, although usually hooked together can be separated (stroke the wing with a pencil tip to see if they will unhook); and (3) long stout antennae with an 'elbow' after the first long segment near their base.

While this key usually works for the common species of Britain, it does not include morphological characters yet and will at the moment fail to separate species with similar colour patterns. These are largely local and rare species. Some notes on these are included, but to be sure of identifying them correctly, you will need to use one of the more technical keys that may require using a microscope (e.g. Prys-Jones & Corbet, 1987, 1991; Benton, 2006).

Some bees may not be identifiable for other reasons:

• Bees that are wet or dirty, or have had their hair rubbed off.
• Old bees that have spent a long time in the sun may fade (e.g. from red to yellow, or from yellow to nearly white) and so will not match the patterns of the fresh specimens shown here.
• Colour patterns are also very variable, so they may not match the examples exactly (most other keys show less of the variation).
• Occasionally, bees are found that have very odd colour patterns, which are not shown here. They may either be mutants (e.g. with one or more colours completely missing), or may have been damaged during development (e.g. chilling often causes greying or additional pale bands to be added to the pattern).

2 How to use this colour key

You will need to compare your bee with the colour patterns shown in the key. Be careful if you handle living bumblebees: queen and worker bumblebees can sting!

The colours shown are the colours of the hair, not of the body surface (which is black or brown). The colours of the hair are described as being black or pale, so 'pale' includes white, grey, yellow, orange, red, and brown. In the colour-pattern diagrams, the colour pattern is simplified by artificially dividing the body up into rectangular areas and showing just the predominant colour for each.

This page currently contains two keys: a very brief overview of the six most frequently encountered species ("Big Six") and a more comprehensive key to a selection British species as far as they are identifiable based on color patterns.

Glossary of terms

• Thorax (= "breast"): The part of the insect where the legs are attached, between head and tail.
• Tail informal term to refer to pale hair at the end of the insect (note that this is not the whole abdomen or metasoma posterior to the waist).

3 "Big Six" - the most frequent bumblebee species (Britain)

BumblebeeID – find British species by colour pattern: Quick Guide to the "Big Six" species — Paul Williams
An overview over the species and colour patterns most frequently encountered in Britain. Please send comments and suggestions to Paul Williams. (Geographic scope not specified) — Collaboration: open — Status: PRESENTLY WORK UNDER REVISION, NOT USABLE YET Note: all species links (red) are not yet created. — Edited by: G. Hagedorn (formatting and minor adaptations)

Compare the typical colour patterns (female/male) for each species:
		a: Thorax orange brown tail orange brown b: Female unbanded tail deep red male with yellow bands c: 1-2 yellow bands tail orange d: Two golden yellow bands tail white, buff at least at base e: Two lemon yellow bands tail pure white male 2-3 yellow bands f: Three yellow bands tail pure white ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ Bombus pascuorum Bombus lapidarius Bombus pratorum Bombus terrestris Bombus lucorum Bombus hortorum

4 Comprehensive key to British bumblebee species by colour pattern

Instructions: by clicking on the number behind a choice the browser will jump to the corresponding number in the first column. A software to automate the navigation and focussing on one decision at a time, is currently being developed.

BumblebeeID – find British species by colour pattern — Paul Williams

The colour pattern of the body hair can be used to identify bumblebee species. This easy to use key is often sufficient to identify the common species and some of the rarer species. Please send comments and suggestions to Paul Williams. (Geographic scope not specified) — Collaboration: open — Status: PRESENTLY WORK IN PROGRESS, NOT USABLE YET Note: all species links (red) are not yet created. — Edited by: G. Hagedorn (formatting and minor adaptations)

1		a: Tail yellow-white b: Tail orange, red, or brown c: Tail black ▼ ▼ ▼   2     9     14
Tail yellow-white
2		a: Having orange-red thorax b: Without pale bands c: Having 1 yellow band d: Having 2 yellow bands e: Having 3 yellow bands f: Tail mostly yellow ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼   3     4     5     6     7     8
Tail yellow-white, thorax orange-red
3		a: Widespread species: B. pascuorum, northern Britain form b: Local species: B. humilis, southern Britain form c: Local species d: Local species, tail being mostly black e: Local form in the north of the Britain; the tail being half black and half yellow-black-yellow striped ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ Bombus pascuorum Bombus humilis Bombus muscorum Bombus hypnorum Bombus campestris
Tail yellow-white, without pale bands
4		a: Widespread species b: Local species: B. jonellus, rare dark mainland form, predominantly North + West ▼ ▼ Bombus campestris Bombus jonellus
Tail yellow-white, with one yellow band
5		a: Widespread species: B. terrestris, queen (dark form) b: Widespread species c: Widespread species d: Widespread species e: Extremely rare: B. subterraneus, extinct southern Britain form ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ Bombus terrestris Bombus vestalis Bombus bohemicus Bombus sylvestris Bombus subterraneus
Tail yellow-white, with two yellow bands
6	a	Widespread species     Buff tailed bumblebee   Bombus terrestris All six forms: Queen, common form Queen/worker, common form Worker, common form Male, common form Queen/worker, rare introduced form
6	b	Widespread species     White tailed bumblebee   Bombus lucorum
6	c	Widespread species     Barbut's Cuckoo-bee   Bombus barbutellus
6	d	Widespread species     Four-coloured Cuckoo-bee   Bombus sylvestris
6	e	Widespread species: B. campestris (common form)     Field Cuckoo-bee   Bombus campestris
6	f	Local species: B. soroeensis, predominantly North + West Britain     Broken-belted Humble-bee,  Ilfracombe Humble-bee   Bombus soroeensis
6	g	Local species: B. ruderatus, southern Britain form     Large garden bumblebee   Bombus ruderatus
6	h	Local species: B. jonellus, rare dark mainland form, predominantly North + West     Heath humble-bee,  Small heath bumblebee   Bombus jonellus
6	i	Extremely rare: B. subterraneus, extinct southern Britain form     Short-haired bumble-bee   Bombus subterraneus
Tail yellow-white, with three yellow bands
7	a	Widespread species     Garden bumblebee   Bombus hortorum
7	b	Widespread species     White tailed bumblebee   Bombus lucorum
7	c	Widespread species     Vestal Cuckoo-bee   Bombus vestalis
7	d	Widespread species     Gipsy Cuckoo-bee   Bombus bohemicus
7	e	Widespread species     Barbut's Cuckoo-bee   Bombus barbutellus
7	f	Widespread species     Field Cuckoo-bee   Bombus campestris
7	g	Local species: B. jonellus, mainland form, predominantly North + West     Heath humble-bee,  Small heath bumblebee   Bombus jonellus
7	h	Local species: B. ruderatus, southern Britain form     Large garden bumblebee   Bombus ruderatus
7	i	Extremely rare: B. subterraneus, extinct southern Britain form     Short-haired bumble-bee   Bombus subterraneus
Tail mostly yellow
8		a: Widespread species b: Widespread species c: Local species: B. distinguendus (northern Britain) d: Extremely rare: B. subterraneus, extinct southern Britain form ▼ ▼ ▼ Bombus campestris Bombus distinguendus Bombus subterraneus
Tail orange, red, or brown
9		a: Orange-red thorax b: Without pale bands c: With one or two yellow bands d: With three yellow/olive/grey bands ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼   10     11     12     13
Tail orange, red, or brown, thorax orange-red
10		a: Widespread species: B. pascuorum, southern Britain form b: Local species: B. muscorum, North + West Britain, island form ▼ ▼ Bombus pascuorum Bombus muscorum
Tail orange, red, or brown, without pale bands
11		a: Widespread species b: Local species c: Local species: B. sylvarum, rare dark form d: Local species: B. rupestris, southern Britain e: Extremely rare, perhaps extinct species: B. cullumanus, extinct southern Britain f: Extremely rare, perhaps extinct species: B. pomorum, extinct southern Britain ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ Bombus lapidarius Bombus ruderarius Bombus sylvarum Bombus rupestris Bombus cullumanus Bombus pomorum
Tail orange, red, or brown, with one or two yellow bands
12		a: Widespread species b: Widespread species c: Widespread species d: Local species: B. monticola, North + West uplands of Britain e: Local species: B. rupestris, southern Britain ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ Bombus pratorum Bombus lapidarius Bombus sylvestris Bombus monticola Bombus rupestris
Tail orange, red, or brown, with three yellow/olive/grey bands
13	a	Widespread species     Early nesting bumblebee   Bombus pratorum
13	b	Widespread species     Red tailed bumblebee   Bombus lapidarius
13	c	Local species: B. ruderarius, southern Britain    Bombus ruderarius
13	d	Local species: B. sylvarum, southern Britain     Shrill carder-bee,  Knapweed carder-bee   Bombus sylvarum
13	e	Local species: B. jonellus, N island form     Heath humble-bee,  Small heath bumblebee   Bombus jonellus
13	f	Local species: B. monticola, North + West uplands of Britain     Bilberry bumblebee,  Mountain bumblebee   Bombus monticola (= Bombus lapponicus)
13	g	Local species: B. rupestris, southern Britain     Hill Cuckoo-bee   Bombus rupestris
13	h	Extremely rare: B. cullumanus, extinct southern Britain     Cullum's Humble-bee   Bombus cullumanus
13	i	Extremely rare: B. pomorum, extinct southern Britain     Apple Humble-bee   Bombus pomorum
Tail black
14		a: Orange-brown thorax b: All black (no pale bands) ▼ ▼ Bombus pascuorum   15
All black
15		a: Widespread species: B. hortorum (rarely having dark forms) b: Widespread species: B. campestris (rarely having dark forms) c: Local species: B. ruderatus (southern Britain form may be dark) ▼ ▼ ▼ Bombus hortorum Bombus campestris Bombus ruderatus

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See also German page on Key to Nature: "Hummeln erkennen und schützen"