If you saw this on a flower somewhere, you could be forgiven if you thought it was just a Bumble Bee. It's not, it is a Cuckoo Bee Psithyrus vestalis.
Cuckoo Bees are social parasites of bumble bees. They lay their eggs in the nests of Bumble Bees, and let the Bumble Bees feed and raise the grub, safe inside their nest.
There are six species of Cuckoo Bees in the UK and each species uses a specific species of Bumble Bee as a host.
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@gardencat that's a good question Joanne. They each very closely resemble their bee hosts. They don't have pollen baskets on their back legs, because they have no reason to collect it. Also the hairs on the back is not as dense as on normal bees. So I don't think it's that easy out in the field unless you become a bee expert.
I found out about this one because I was trying to identify it. At first I thought it was one of the White Tailed Bees, but with more research found it wasn't. Checked other Bumble bee species and drew a blank. So then had a look at Cuckoo bees. It came down to either Psithyrus fulva or Psithyrus bohemicus. Very difficult to separate, but went with fulva as there is just a bit more yellow between the black and white towards the rear.
Like you said the other day, doing the research on these is very interesting.
I am just totally stunned by your amazing focus on these bees - they are really interesting to study from your shot. The information you've given about them is fascinating. I think I mentioned in the question about what we liked about 365 that the education you got from others was better than many college courses - good example here.
I found out about this one because I was trying to identify it. At first I thought it was one of the White Tailed Bees, but with more research found it wasn't. Checked other Bumble bee species and drew a blank. So then had a look at Cuckoo bees. It came down to either Psithyrus fulva or Psithyrus bohemicus. Very difficult to separate, but went with fulva as there is just a bit more yellow between the black and white towards the rear.
Like you said the other day, doing the research on these is very interesting.