Clay bumble bee
Bombus argillaceus
The clay bumble bee is a big, furry bumblebee with a yellow chest crossed by a black band. The queen is the biggest one and is all black at the back. It has a very long tongue for reaching deep into flowers.
Lives in
Southern and south-eastern Europe to western Asia, often in mountains
What does it eat?
It drinks nectar and collects pollen from flowers of the forget-me-not, daisy, mint and pea families.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Clay bumble bee about 16 km/h (9.9 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
The queen can be 24 to 28 millimetres long. Workers and males are much smaller.
2
Workers and males have a white tail, but the queen's back end is completely black.
3
In Turkey it lives high in the mountains and has been found almost 3 kilometres above the sea.
4
Its head is long and narrow, which fits its very long tongue.
you asked
Most asked questions about Clay bumble bee
?Where does the clay bumble bee live?
From the Alps and the Balkans to Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran and Kazakhstan.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Bombus argillaceus
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Apidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Apidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Bombus argillaceus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Gideon Pisanty ( Gidip ) ืืืขืื ืคืืื ืื. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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