Heath bumblebee

How to recognise it

Small, with two yellow bands on the thorax, one on the abdomen and a clean white tail — the same pattern as the garden bumblebee, on a distinctly smaller bee with a short round face.

• Small, with a short round face — the garden bumblebee has the same banding and a long one.
• Three yellow bands and a white tail.
• On heather, bilberry and gorse rather than in gardens, in most of its range.
• Often two generations, so it can be seen from March through to September.

Body length 9–17 mm (typically 13 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

50–150 individuals

Colony lifespan

One season, and often two colony cycles within it.

Winter

Mated new queens overwinter alone in soil or moss.

Castes

Queen, Workers, Males, New queens

Nesting

Burrows in the ground; Existing cavities and tubes

Nests at or below the surface in moss, tussocky grass, old rodent burrows and occasionally bird boxes. Colonies are small.

Carries pollen

Corbicula (pollen basket) on the hind leg

On the wing

March to September

Lifecycle

1. 1Early emergenceQueens emerge in March and April on heathland and moor.March to April.
2. 2Two generationsIn much of its range a second generation of queens founds colonies in summer rather than hibernating, giving two cycles in one year.May onwards.
3. 3ReproductionReproductives from May in the first generation and August in the second.

Where it lives and what it does

Habitat

Heathland, moorland, coastal dune, machair and upland — and gardens in the north and west of its range.

Distribution

Northern and western Europe, and one of the few bumblebees reaching Iceland, Shetland and the far north.

Behaviour

Short-tongued and generalist, and unusual among British bumblebees in its readiness to run two colony cycles in a year. Its association with heather and bilberry makes it an upland and heathland specialist by habitat rather than by diet.

Pollination role

An important pollinator of heather and bilberry, and therefore of the crops those plants underpin — bilberry fruiting in northern forests tracks bumblebee abundance closely.

High on heathland and upland flora, where alternatives are few.

What it forages on

Heather, bilberry, gorse, willow and bird's-foot trefoil — the heathland and upland sequence.

Honey

Keeps only a few days of stores

A few days' worth in wax pots.

Relationship with people

How people interact with it

Little noticed and locally common. Its decline in southern England tracks heathland loss almost exactly, while northern populations remain strong.

Conservation

Stable in the north and west and declining in southern England with the loss of lowland heath — one of the most fragmented habitats in Britain.