Bumblebee / Bumbar

Description:

A large bumblebee (the queen has a body length of 24 - 28 mm) with a long proboscis (tongue), a very oblong head and dark wings. The males and workers are considerably smaller than the queen. The thorax is yellow with a broad, median, black band. The abdomen of the queen is compleatly black, while the males and workers have the first tergite (abdominal segment) and the centre of the second yellow, the middle part black and the tail white, except the last tergite, which is black. It was pollinating deadnettle flowers (http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/206...), you can see what is on the 3rd photo because it has reddish pollen on its hair.

Habitat:

This is a typical East-Mediterranean species. To the west, the range of B. argillaceus extends in France to the upper valleys of the Alps and in Switzerland to the upper Rhone. It is found throughout North Italy and in most of the Austria. The northern limit of its range runs through Slovakia. In Hungary, it is found everywhere. In Romania, it extends to the region of Cluj. It has been found in Moldavia and in Russia up to Kursk and Volgograd, and in the East Kazakstan. South and south-east, it is found throughout the Balkanic Peninsula, in Creta, Cyprus, Turkey, Caucasus, Transcaucasia and North Iran, including the Kopet-Dag. Despite ancient erroneus citations, the species is totally absent from the Iberian Peninsula.