Topic: Bumblebee ID - Queen Tree Bumblebee?

[hellohelenhere]

... or something else?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IPfscUgkD74/ShxJN4YkCRI/AAAAAAAAANo/abm0utS1tX0/s1600-h/IMG_3644b.jpg

The pdf guide you can download from here:
http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/bumblebees_id.htm 
('guide to the commoner garden bumblebees') shows something similar, but it appears much more buff-coloured than red, whereas this one is much more of a russet red colour.

I also have another bee and a damsel/dragon fly photo here - no idea what kind they are!
http://backgardenallotmenteer.blogspot.com/2009/05/critters.html

Anybody know?

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's a damsel. Dragonflies can't fold their wings back so they're always stuck rigidly out like aeroplane wings.

[hellohelenhere]

Any idea on the bees?

[Robert_Brenchley]

The first one looks like the tree bumblebee, Bombus hypnorum. It's a new arrival in the UK since 2001, but it's spreading, and has been found in your area if the map's anything to go by.

http://www.bwars.com/bombus_hypnorum_map.htm

[hellohelenhere]

Thanks Robert, that looks like her! Funny that on the chart I referred to, the colour is given as so much paler - maybe there are variants.

[Eristic]

I find those ID charts hoplessly inadequate. They are obviously designed for 'molagists not the general public. Why can't they produce a definitive photo gallery of all the bumblebees with queen, worker and male side by side? A couple of weekends ought to be enough time.

I have lots of the tree bumblebees on my plot that look just the same as Helens plus another one that so far does not fit with any of the charts I've seen. Solid lemon thorax, black body, orange tail.

Unfortunately I've no camera at the moment.