Large garden bumblebee
The large garden bumblebee is a big black bumblebee with yellow bands. It has a long face and a very long tongue. That lets it drink from deep, tube-shaped flowers that other bees cannot reach.
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Fun facts
It is the biggest bumblebee in Britain. A queen can be about 2.2 centimetres long.
In 1885 people took it to New Zealand to help pollinate red clover.
It looks almost the same as the garden bumblebee, but tests of their genes show they are different species.
Most of its nests are hidden under the ground.
It is getting rare in many places, so people are working to protect it.
Most asked questions about Large garden bumblebee
?Why does it have such a long tongue?
To reach the nectar deep inside long, tube-shaped flowers.
?How big is the large garden bumblebee?
Workers are about 1.6 centimetres long and queens can reach about 2.2 centimetres.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Bombus ruderatus
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Apidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Apidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Australia and Oceania, South America
- Also known as
- Ruderal bumblebee
Where the facts come from
- Bombus ruderatus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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