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Brown-banded carder bee

Bombus humilisEusocial, colony dies each autumnKeeps only a few days of stores

A scarce gingery carder bee of unimproved grassland, coastal grazing marsh and brownfield land, and one of the group of British bumblebees whose decline tracks the loss of flower-rich grassland almost exactly. It is difficult to separate in the field from the common carder bee, which is part of why its status took so long to establish.

Can it sting?

Can sting and effectively never does.

How to recognise it

A pale gingery bumblebee with an even ginger thorax and, in many individuals, a distinct darker brown band across the front of the abdomen. No black hairs on the abdomen and no white tail.

  • Pale even ginger with a brown band across the front of the abdomen in many individuals.
  • No black abdominal hairs and no white tail.
  • Unimproved grassland, coastal grazing marsh and brownfield land rather than gardens.
  • Long-tongued, working legumes head-first.

Body length 10–18 mm (typically 14 mm).

Biology

Social organisation

Eusocial, colony dies each autumn

A true colony with a queen and workers, but only for one season: everyone dies in autumn except mated new queens, who overwinter alone. Bumblebees.

Colony size at peak
40–150 individuals
Colony lifespan
One season.
Winter
Mated new queens overwinter alone.
Castes
Queen, Workers, Males, New queens
Nesting
Burrows in the ground

Nests at the surface in tussocky grass and litter, carding material over the nest. Surface nests are highly vulnerable to summer mowing.

Carries pollen
Corbicula (pollen basket) on the hind leg
On the wing
May to September

Lifecycle

  1. Late emergenceQueens emerge in May, later than the common carder.May.
  2. Colony seasonBuilds through summer on legumes, with the season running into September.
  3. ReproductionReproductives from August.

Where it lives and what it does

Habitat
Unimproved grassland, coastal grazing marsh, brownfield land, chalk downland and old quarries.
Distribution
Across Europe. In Britain, a scattered and declining southern species with strongholds on the south coast, the Thames estuary and parts of Wales.
Behaviour
A long-tongued legume specialist with a late season — the same profile as the shrill carder and great yellow bumblebees, and the same vulnerability. Brownfield land is a disproportionately important habitat for it, which puts it in direct conflict with development.
Pollination role
An important pollinator of grassland legumes where it survives.

High on legumes, and restricted enough now that its national contribution is small.

What it forages on
Legumes and knapweed — red clover, bird's-foot trefoil, vetches, restharrow.

Honey

Keeps only a few days of stores

A few days' worth in wax pots.

Relationship with people

How people interact with it
A UK conservation priority species, monitored through targeted survey. Its reliance on brownfield sites makes it one of the clearest cases for treating derelict land as habitat rather than as waste.
Conservation
Declining, and for the familiar reason: the loss of unimproved flower-rich grassland and of red clover from farming rotations. Development of brownfield land removes several of its remaining strongholds.

Sources

  • Bumblebees: Behaviour, Ecology, and Conservation — Oxford University Press (2010) · Monograph
  • Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide

How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.

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