What are these insects (1 Viewer)

Help required please to I.D. these insects photographed in my Norfolk garden earlier this year.
David

The first is an Eristalis hoverfly, not sure of species. The rest are bees, which I will leave for other to comment on.

2 is Bombus pascuorum
3 + 5 appear to be Apis mellifera (Honey Bee)
4 Bombus ?

I would agree with Brian over pic 1.

Pics 3 and 5 are the Honey Bee A.melifera.

Pic 2 Bombus pascuorum.

Pic 4. Bombus lapidarius

Harry.

harry eales said:

I would agree with Brian over pic 1.

Pics 3 and 5 are the Honey Bee A.melifera.

Pic 2 Bombus pascuorum.

Pic 4. Bombus lapidarius

Harry.

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I'm not sure of the exact ID on 4 but it's definitely not B. lapidarius, the Red-tailed Bumble Bee

I have looked again at picture no 4, and see no reason to change my opinion. I still believe it is a male lapidarius. The red band of hairs at the junction of the thorax and the abdomen is unusual, but not unknown.

A similar specimen is illustrated in 'Bumblebees' by D.V.Alford labelled as taken in Bucks.

Missing or additional colour banding is far from unknown in most Bumblebee species. The yellowish rust colour of the tail is also common due to the red colour fading.

Harry

Pic 1 i reckon to be the hoverfly Eristalis interruptus and as i'm no expert on bumblebees i shall leave the other pics!!
E. interruptus is a common hoverfly of open habitats and normally gone by October so this one should be one of the last of the year .... but with global warming, who knows!!

harry eales said:

I have looked again at picture no 4, and see no reason to change my opinion. I still believe it is a male lapidarius. The red band of hairs at the junction of the thorax and the abdomen is unusual, but not unknown.

A similar specimen is illustrated in 'Bumblebees' by D.V.Alford labelled as taken in Bucks.

Missing or additional colour banding is far from unknown in most Bumblebee species. The yellowish rust colour of the tail is also common due to the red colour fading.

Harry

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Whilst I agree with all of the above, surely even at that angle the yellow hairs on the face will be visible?

I'm leaning towards one of the cuckoos perhaps, particularly with the sparseness of the hairs on the abdomen.

Imaginos said:

Whilst I agree with all of the above, surely even at that angle the yellow hairs on the face will be visible?

I'm leaning towards one of the cuckoos perhaps, particularly with the sparseness of the hairs on the abdomen.

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Imaginos,

Looking again at the picture there are some light coloured hairs on the edge of the face visible but what colour they are, is debatable, the angle of the head is from the side and rear so that the facial hairs may just be hidden.

I see your point about considering it to be one of the Bombus (Psithyrus) species but only one of these has a red tail and that is B.(P) rupestris. That species has, these days, a very restricted range mostly along the South Coast, although I believe it is expanding its range again.

Old bees, and this appears to be one, do lose their hair over time exposing areas of cuticle where they have been rubbed away. Looking at the hind leg there does appear to be a hint of a corbicular, which would work against it being a Cuckoo Bee.

Having lost my copy of Photoshop 7 in a recent Netski virus attack, I cannot do the enlarging, cropping and enhancement I would like, using the Microsoft picture editor, which is a rubbish programme in comparrison.

Unless other pictures are available of this bee taken from other angles, I'm afraid we will just have to differ in our opinions as to its identity.

Harry.