Buff-tailed Bumblebee

Description:

These are pollen storing bees, feeding on nectar and pollen. The queens are 20-22mm long and the males and workers arange from 11-17mm. They have a yellow band behind the head at the top of the thorax then a wide black band crossing onto the abdomen, followed by a second narrow yellow stripe. A further black band extends down the abdomen until the white or buff coloured tail area. Workers have white-ended abdomens but queens are buff-coloured. They have the shortest tongue of the four bumblebees present in NZ but still longer than a honey bee

Habitat:

Often seen in gardens and anywhere plants or trees are flowering. They can forage nearly 10km away from their nest and still navigate their way back. They live in a colony like bees but have an underground nest, used only for one season. Hives can contain up to 400 adult bumblebees at peak but as only the new season queens generally survive the winter, there is not the same need to amass honey stores (unlike honey bees).

Notes:

Four species of bumblebee were introduced to NZ in the early 1900s for the pollination of clover on pastoral farms. Bombus Terresteris is not thought to be able to pollinate red clover but white clovers and many other flowering species are well within its capabilities. Although not native to NZ, bumblebees play a vital role in the pollination of food and flower crops across the globe. They can be 'farmed' like honey bees but are more usually found as wild populations. In these photos they are feeding on garden plants - a species of Ceanothus (blue) and Manuka (white & red). The bumblebees on the Manuka were very settled and feeding slowly whilst those on the Ceanothus were constantly on the move and much more difficult to photograph. The two plants were side by side! Photos of the whole plants being foraged on are included for context.