Ruderal Bumblebee
Bombus ruderatus
A big velvety bee with neat yellow bands.
Male
Yellow collar
Yellow rear band
Yellow front band
White tail
June
Queen
Yellow collar
Yellow rear band
Yellow front band
White tail
April
Worker
Yellow collar
Yellow rear band
Yellow front band
White tail
May
- Very variable in appearance
- Neat ‘short’ hair
- Thorax bands (when present) are equal in width
- White tail sometimes goes up the sides of the abdomen and can have a yellow hue
- Looks like a neat version of a Garden bumblebee
- Is also called the ‘Large garden bumblebee’
- Intermediate form has thin yellow bands
- Dark form is all black
Ruderal Bumblebee
Bombus ruderatus
An all black bee is often a Ruderal.
Love red clover.
- Bear’s britches
- Bird’s-foot-trefoils
- Borage
- Comfrey
- Everlasting peas
- Foxgloves
- Knapweeds
- Red clover
- Teasel
- Thistles
- Toadflax
- Vetches
- Viper’s bugloss
- White dead-nettle
- Woundwort
- Yellow iris
Crocus
Lavendar
Thistle
Nest
- Underground; likes old rodent nests
- Usually one cycle per year
- Lasts 3-4 months
- Around 150 workers
Distribution
- Rare and localised to south of England, Lincolnshire and Midlands
- Occasionally seen in Wales
- Not currently found in Scotland
- Likes open wild flower meadows and margins, river valleys and brownfield habitats
- Occasionally seen in woodland and urban spaces