Bombus lucorum
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Bombus lucorum, the white-tailed bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee, widespread and common throughout Europe. This name has been widely used for a range of nearly identical-looking or cryptic species of bumblebees. In 1983, Scholl and Obrecht even coined the term Bombus lucorum complex to explain the three taxa (B. lucorum, Bombus magnus, and Bombus cryptarum) that cannot be easily differentiated from one another by their appearances. A recent review of all of these species worldwide has helped to clarify its distribution in Europe and northern Asia, almost to the Pacific. B. lucorum reaches the Barents Sea in the North. However, in southern Europe, although found in Greece it is an upland species with its distribution never quite reaching the Mediterranean.
Compared to other bumblebee species, the individuals of B. lucorum have shorter tongues, and this characteristic enable them to rob nectar. The worker bee uses the horny sheath around its tongue to make a hole through the flower, reaching the nectar without entering the flower. Therefore, the worker bee does not come in contact with the pollen while getting the nectar.
Bombus lucorum is part of the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vatnajokull National Park | 🇮🇸 Iceland | |
| 2 | Tatra National Park | 🇸🇰 Slovakia | |
| 3 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Triglav National Park | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | |
| 5 | Ecrins National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 6 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 7 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 8 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 9 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a White-Tailed Bumble Bee sighting in Saint Petersburg on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 220th most-seen of the 448 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-Tailed Bumble Bee in Saint Petersburg on a given day, against under 5% in September to July, the lowest months. That is one of Saint Petersburg's wettest months, with about 100 mm of rain against 40 mm in February.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-Tailed Bumble Bee sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
24th of 25
Of the 25 cities where we can rate White-Tailed Bumble Bee sightings, Saint Petersburg ranks 24th at under 5%. The best odds are in Warsaw (Poland, about 20%), Novosibirsk (Russia, about 10%) and Kharkiv (Ukraine, about 10%).
Same genus: Bombus
The closest relatives of the White-Tailed Bumble Bee that you can see in Saint Petersburg (genus Bombus, Bumble Bees) are Tree Bumble Bee (about 10%) and Red-Tailed Bumble Bee (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-Tailed Bumble Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Saint Petersburg (11 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
