Large Garden Bumblebee

When I spotted this bumblebee wandering around on the red stone in the rockery I knew there was something different about it. Until I started doing macros of insects all bumblebees were the same to me. Then about three years ago I noticed some that were not the usual Bombus terrestrus. They turned out to be the small garden bumblebee, B hortorum. Now this lady was neither- the wrong stripe pattern for an earth bumblebee and too big for the small garden bumblebee.

We have only four varieties of bumblebee in New Zealand, introduced to fertilise crops. One is found only in the south of the South Island and the fourth looks just like this one. It has a yellow stripe on the shoulders and either side of the waist, and a white tail. She is the large garden bumblebee, B ruderatus.

I’m amazed that I could have thought all bumblebees were the same. Later I went out and looked again, but she had withdrawn to her lair in that dark corner under the stone. Just her white tail was visible.