"A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing."
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I'm going for Bombus hypnorum here, apparently first found in the UK in 2001 but I'm pretty sure I've seen white tailed, ginger thoraxed bumblebees with black abdomens since I was a child. That's a lot longer ago that 2001.
Also, I'm sticking with Endymion non-scriptus, which name has much greater dignity (and poetry) than the repulsive Hyacinthoides.
Wikipedia (whose article on B. hypnorum suggests an obnoxiously invasive program of research) says 'Queens in this species can be polyandrous... Because of multiple mating, sisters in a colony may have different fathers', which has a nasty stench of the judgemental voyeur.
They're bumblebees -- leave them alone. Reserve your spite for your own species.
2021-05-19T08:53Z 52.680930 -3.713169






