Breathe In And Out...

By ScotNatureBoy

A hat-trick of bumblebees

Backblip from Saturday. This was the third day in a row when I've been able to use a bumblebee for my Blipfoto entry, hence my hat-trick. And, great excitement today as this is a new species of bumblebee for my smartphone camera bumblebee project. I took a few other shots from different angles and, taking into account the location of its single yellow stripe, white bottom with black tip and the state of bristliness of the hindmost legs, in addition to the geographic location (North Berwick in East Lothian, eastern Scotland), it is definitely a cuckoo bumblee species, one of those that kills the queen of a 'normal' bumblebee species nest and fools the 'normal' worker bees to raise its own offspring. Taking account of all of the factors above and the distribution maps on the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Scheme (BWARS), I am almost certain that this is a Gypsy Cuckoo Bumblebee, a delightful name, along with even more delightful scientific name of Bombus bohemicus. This species parasitises nests of the white tailed bumblebee, a species that it resembles superficially. I took this photo on a lawn at a summer fête in North Berwick, an interesting diversion from tea, cake and tombola!

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