Brown Banded Carder Bee

The brown-banded carder bee nests on the surface of the ground, usually in grass tussocks. Bees forage for pollen and nectar throughout the summer months, from May to September. The colonies last for a year, with new queens hibernating through the winter and establishing new colonies the following year.

There are five species of bumble and carder bee included on the UK Biodiversity Action Plans, although one, Bombus ruderatus, has still not been positively identified by entomologists as a distinct species. All are also listed in English Nature's Species Recovery Programme. There has been an increasingly vigorous campaign in recent years to raise the public's awareness of the disappearance of our bumblebees. The insects enjoy a good relationship with human beings and, for many, their buzzing induces a nostalgia for summer days long past. The Action Plans for bumblebees are linked, sensibly enough, with those for many of the threatened plants, which used to populate field boundaries and meadows where the bees obtained their food. It is hoped that some of the proposed changes to the Common Agricultural Policy will benefit many of the species associated with Britain's agricultural regions. In the meantime, there are other projects aiming to help our threatened bees. English Nature has worked with seed companies to develop a wildflower mix, which contains seed from many of the species that bees prefer to feed from. These include red clover, bird's-foot trefoil and several knapweed species. This mixture is now approved for use in Countryside Stewardship Schemes, and farmers are also being encouraged to take up grants to improve the lot of bumblebees. The advantages to the farmer of having these insects around are many. These include their importance in pollinating pea and bean crops, bumblebees' ability to operate at lower temperatures than honeybees, and their considerable popularity with the public. Oxford University Museum is tackling the problem of bee nesting sites by promoting the use of boxes for those species that frequent domestic gardens. Cultivated flowers can offer a lifeline to many bees, and the additional protection afforded by semi-cultivated gardens is obvious. Bees, however, have no shortage of support amongst the public, and may be able to stage a come-back so that our fields and country lanes will once again simmer with their drowsy buzzing.

The brown-banded carder bee B. humilis is one of the 24 species of bumblebee or cuckoo bee found in the UK. It is also one of the most endangered. This tawny coloured species has a characteristic brown band on the upper surface of the abdomen, hence the common name. Three 'castes' occur within bumblebee nests, a 'queen' (the reproductive female), 'workers' (non-reproductive females) and males. All three castes are broadly similar in appearance, but males can be distinguished as they lack stings and have longer antennae than females. Many people find bumblebees difficult to tell apart and are therefore surprised to discover there are so many species.

B. humilis is associated with flower-rich meadows that support species with long corollas such as vetches, clovers, dead-nettles and the red bartsia.

The brown-banded carder bee was once considered quite widespread in Britain. It is now very local in most of its former range but is still relatively common in the south of England and in South Wales. It is also found throughout Europe.

Classified as Rare in Britain.

The main threat to this species is thought to be the loss of the flower-rich grassland and the intensity of modern farming methods. Many of their favoured food plants have become scarce, and with farmers now cultivating right to the edges of the field, places to construct nests have all but disappeared. Hedgerows too, as well as being in short supply, are cut back so regularly that they have ceased to be safe nesting sites.

Animal / parasitoid / endoparasitoid
solitary larva of Physocephala rufipes is endoparasitoid of adult of Bombus humilis

Animal / sequestrates
female of Psithyrus campestris takes over nest of Bombus humilis
Remarks: Other: uncertain

The brown-banded carder bee (Bombus humilis) is a bumblebee found in most of Europe west of Russia, with the exception of Ireland and Iceland. It is also found in Turkey, on the Tibetan plateau, northern China, eastern and southern Mongolia, and parts of North Korea. In Britain, it is limited to the coast and chalkland areas of southern England. The brown-banded carder bee is similar in appearance to the moss carder bee. As they share similar habitats, care must be taken to distinguish between the two.