This is possibly Ireland’s commonest bumblebee and can be just as frequent in urban gardens as it can in remote coastal grasslands. It has a rusty orange coloured thorax and a small amount of orange hair at the tail-end of the abdomen. There is some amount of variation that can be seen within this species and the abdomen can have pale hairs (similar to B. muscorum) or dark hairs, but all individuals will have some amount of black hairs, which are diagnostic. It is a smaller bumblebee species which visits a wide variety of flowers.

Distribution in Ireland: Widespread and common throughout.

Flight Period: March-October, queens sometimes appear during mild spells in winter.

Habitat: Anywhere with flowers, including gardens, urban areas, farmland, woodland edges, bogs, coastal meadows, brownfield sites, etc.

Flowers visited: A wide range of native and non-native flowers. It is highly polylectic and I have seen it visit flowers which are ignored by many other bees.

Personal Records: I have recorded it widely in counties Down, Armagh, Antrim, Louth, Wicklow, Donegal, Sligo and Mayo in a wide variety of habitats. It is often among the first bees to appear each year. I have encountered one active nest of this species, which had been constructed deep within a grass tussock along the north-facing edge of a wheat field. It is one of the hosts of the Cuckoo bee Bombus campestris, which is much rarer.