Bumblebees look different from honeybees. The main difference is that bumblebees are usually larger and covered with dense hair. Their round bodies covered in soft hair, called pile, make them appear fuzzy. They often have strong contrasting bands of colour, as a warning signal to their prey.
|Bumble bee on a cherry blossom|
Bumblebees are important agricultural pollinators, pollinating the crops that provide us with food to eat. Like their relatives the honeybees, they gather nectar to add to the stores in their nest, and pollen to feed their young. Their nests are small and they do not store large quantities of honey.
|Bumble bee nest|
|Bumblebees of different species illustrated by Moses Harris in his 1782 Exposition of English Insects|
|Bombus anachoreta on a Russian postage stamp, 2005|
Bumblebees are quite popular in modern culture - there have been stamps designed around them and orchestral music composed about them - "Flight of the Bumblebee"
You can learn about Bumblebees in more depth and help save the bumblebee at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust