Short-haired Bumblebee

This post is not strictly about Pett although I hope it will affect Pett in the not too distant future.  I am in Sweden at the moment looking for bumblebees for the Short-haired bumblebee reintroduction project.  The bumblebees that I caught today will not form part of the reintroduction as the collection will not start for a few days.  I caught them just to make sure that they were short-haired bumblebees to gauge how many are emerging from hibernation, so that we know when to start collecting in earnest.  The collected bumblebees will then make their way to Dungeness for release at the end of May.  When they are fully established in the UK, then hopefully a few will make their way to Pett.  If they do, I hope that I am first to let you know.  There are two photos below.  The first one shows the normal colour form that will be introduced to the UK with yellow bands and a white tail.  The second shows the mellanistic form which is almost completely black and will not be introduced to the UK as the UK has never had that colour form.

Short-haired bumblebee (Bombus subterraneous)

Short-haired bumblebee - mellanistic form