Shrill carder bumblebee (Bombus sylvarum)
Species distribution map from https://nbnatlas.org
This is perhaps our rarest bumblebee, now known only found in a handful of locations in south Wales and southern England and generally scarce even there. It has a strong association with complex flowers in the families Lamiacaea and Fabacaea and is a distinctive greyish-green, straw-coloured species, with a dull orange tail and clear black band across the thorax.
View our Shrill carder bee factsheet.
The Great yellow bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus), now only resident in northern Scotland, and Field cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus campestris) both have a similar black thoracic stripe, and worn and faded workers of the ginger carder bumblebees (Common carder bee, Bombus pascuorum; Moss carder bee, )Bombus muscorum) and Brown-banded carder bee, (Bombus humilis) can look similar, yet none of these have the orange tail of the Shrill carder bee.
Males have a similar banding pattern to that of the Red-shanked carder bumblebee (Bombus ruderarius), but the yellow bands of the Red-shanked carder are much darker, almost blending with the black background (obviously straw-coloured in the Shrill carder), and the red tail of the Red-shanked carder is a much brighter red than the washed-out orange of the Shrill carder bee. The male genital capsule is useful to check the ID, particularly of worn specimens.
NEW for 2022. A dedicated Shrill carder bee recording form is now available on the BWARS site. Please submit your sightings.
For more photos visit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/63075200@N07/sets/72157631609859060/
For more detailed information visit BWARs.