Bees fascinate me, when I was young a bee was a bee, they were all the same, or so I thought. It is only since I have been photographing them that I am starting to see the different types.
I may never get to know all of the individual species as there are over 270 different species of bee in the British Isles alone, but I may get to understand the difference between the different ‘types’ such as the Bumblebee, the Honeybee and the Solitary bee.
A female Buff tailed Bumblebee coming in to land next to a male Buff coloured bumblebee. (Please tell me if I’m wrong).
Photo’s taken at Belton House gardens Lincolnshire.
The big 6 most commonly found bumblebees in Britain are; the Buff tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), the Early Bumblebee (Bombus Pratorum), the Common Carder Bee (Bombus Pascuorum), the White tailed Bumblebee (Bombus Lucorum), the Red tailed Bumblebee (Bombus Lapidarius), and the Garden Bumblebee (Bombus Hortorum).
There are also Cuckoo Bumblebees (Psithyrus) these like their namesakes in the bird community lay their eggs in the nests of the Bombus honeybees.
There is only one type of Honeybee commonly found in the uk although there are several subspecies’.
There are also many varieties of solitary bees such as the mining bee, the leaf cutter bee, or the Red mason bee. These solitary bees unlike there Honey bee relatives do not have a sting.
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5 comments:
Well - what can one say Dave - but its Bee-utiful.
Glad you got a buzzz out of it!
the bumblebees has been slow the last few days. Tehy don´g seem to like teh weather. Your photos are great and the colors superb.
Beautiful photos of the bees. Thanks for the information on them also..I can't tell the different yet, but still learning..
Dave: I normally contribute to CC also. I love to shoot bees, they are fascinating and you know a lot about them. I post on Saturday mornings.
See you tomorrow.
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