Description
Southern cuckoo bumblebee greetings card
This A6 southern cuckoo bumblebee greetings card is blank inside so you can add your own personal message.
The back of this A6 greetings card includes the following:
The Southern Cuckoo Bumblebee can be found in most habitats across the UK. It lacks a worker caste, instead relying on other bumblebees to rear its young, typically invading nests of the Buff-tailed Bumblebee. As a parasitic species, it is considered an important part of the ecosystem, driving biodiversity and resilience among more dominant species.
Other bee greetings cards include: Honey bee greetings card, Common carder bumblebee greetings card and Tawny mining bee greetings card
This greetings card is also available as part of a set
About
The Southern cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus vestalis) is a fascinating cleptoparasitic species found mainly in southern and central parts of the UK. Unlike typical bumblebees, it doesn’t build its own nest. Instead, the female invades a buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) nest, overthrows the queen, and lays her own eggs for the host workers to rear. This species has a black body with a pale yellow collar and lemon-yellow patches on either side of the tail—useful for identification. Remarkably, it lacks pollen baskets, as it doesn’t need to gather pollen for its young. Adults are most active from April to August and feed on nectar from flowers like brambles, thistles, and knapweed
Spot the Difference: Similar Species
The Gypsy cuckoo bee (Bombus bohemicus) has a similar colour pattern and is the only other species in the UK with yellow patches on either side of the tail. These patches are usually smaller and a paler, sand-like shade compared to the lemon yellow found on the southern cuckoo bee. However, distinguishing between the two species can be very challenging without close examination of individual bees. Reference via the Bumblebee Conservation Trust
