The Red-Tailed Black Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) is an insect in the Apidae family of bees.
The Red-Tailed Black Bumblebee has a black body with orange at the end of its abdomen. The male has a yellow ruff around its neckline and often yellow markings on its face. Its body has fluffy hairs. It has a rounded head with short antennae.
It grows to about 1-2 centimetres (less than one inch) in length. The queen bee is larger than the worker bees.
It is common throughout most of Europe, mainly in temperate regions. It is found in a wide range of habitats, such as fields, parks, scrublands, and forests. It can be seen from April to November.
It is a pollinator. It eats pollen and nectar from flowers.
It is a social bee, but its colonies are smaller than the colonies of Honey Bees. For example, a colony of Red-Tailed Bumblebees has only a few hundred bees, mostly with 100-200 worker bees and one queen bee.
The queen bee selects a nest site and worker bees build a large nest above gound and sometimes in bird boxes.
It has four stages in its life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
Location of photographs: Paris, France
Photographer: Martina Nicolls
Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM