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The first bumblebee of the year flies past like an animated boot brush. It's a huge queen of the buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, looking as big as a mouse as it drones about the allotment. It comes and goes several times as we're digging

Sapphire Class at Ivydale Primary School are now experts on bumblebees. We did a workshop on climate change so I took in a tray of bumblebee specimens and we talked about the potential consequences for these well-known and much-loved insects

at the honeysuckle flowers. But it took me a few days to realize the bumblebees were different. There were several species, but my eye was caught by the well-groomed buff orange ones. In the UK most of the all-orange bumbles, also sometimes called carder bees

We have a bumblebee nest in our compost bin. I first noticed a month ago when the first few workers started coming and going. Now we have a steady stream. The bees are buff-tailed, Bombus terrestris, one of our commonest species.I've told the family

for the base, a bumblebee flitted down to investigate the lavender and sage. It did not stay long though. Unfortunately for our photographer, it was doing what bumblebees (and honeybees for that matter) do best - showing precise flower fidelity.Although we

plumipes is not a bumblebee (although it's about the same size), and has no commonly used English name, which is a shame because it's a characteristic and widespread garden insect. I've always described it as the 'feather-footed bee' (the Latin - plumipes

the rusty-red females. And there were several specimens of the distinctive large black and ashy white Andrena cineraria.Lots of the bumblebee-like Anthophora plumipes have been darting about. The all-black females are often pursued by a posse of black

start flying from late January, it is only around the beginning of May that wasps start to appear. Bumblebees, especially, are early risers — early in the day and early in the year. Their furry coats help keep them warm, when it is too sharp for many

fly, a huge bristly orange and black critter, Tachina fera. No English name for this one, despite being the size of a bumblebee. The trouble is that to merit a common name, insects have to satisfy two important criteria. First they have

few days, the fox has been back each morning to sniff around the patio, today we've had wood pigeon, jay, greater-spotted woodpeckers and more squirrels than I can shake a broom at. A few days ago there was still a bumblebee flying (not sure what