Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
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Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
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Is there a particular category that these two bees fall under?

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=22179147&size=m

It's a hoverfly. One of the many species which have a protective
likeness to stinging insects. You can tell them apart because bees
and wasps have two pairs of wings and long antennae. Flies have one
pair of wings and short antennae.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=20237855&size=m

White-tailed bumblebee I think, (Bombus lucorum)

I don't get it, Rusty. If you look at the header on the photo it was
marked 'hoverfly' so the OP clearly knew it /was/ a hoverfly and
*not* a bee. So why post here calling it a bee...?

I didn't look at the header, I only looked at the pic.

I love bumbles - it takes a great deal, I've found, to make them
sting. In fact, I have picked them up, in my cupped hands, to
release them outside when they have stumbled into the house. Had a
buff-tail sit on my arm the other day and it was very strokable
(well they are, they're all velvety!) I have never been stung by one
- obviously, stinging is a *very* last resort as, obviously, it's
suicidal.

When I was four (I know how old because we were only in that house
when I was that age) I used to catch bumblebees in my cupped hands,
then let them go. I was never stung, either. Now, I'll do the same as
you, and catch them if they've wandered into the house, and release
them outside.

I acutally believe that it's the Vestal cuckoo bee (Bombus vestalis
(formerly Psithyrus vestalis)).

Maybe. I don't know that one - there are rather a lot of similar ones.

Some good images of such can be found here
http://www.arkive.org/species/ARK/in...ll_images.html
(or http://tinyurl.com/8pwg3 if that wraps).

But what do I know - hymenoptera isn't my area of expertise.

Nor mine. I've been buzzed - well, deep-hummed, really - by hornets
recently. I hope none of my neighbours feels the nest has to be found
and destroyed. They're almost as unfazed bt people as bumblebees if
you don't poke a stick into their nest...

If your neighbours are inclined to think that way, simply remind them that
hornets are protected and the destruction of a nest is to leave themselves
liable to prosecution... As you state, they're (fairly) docile creatures
(unlike the common wasp which seems to sting with gay abandon for absolutely
no reason whatsoever).

I used to be a Beaver and Cub Scout leader (I used to do Brownies as well)
and where we used to take the boys camping there was a nest and you know
boys of that age, they know no fear and they would happily stand they with
them crawling up their arms. AFAICR, nobody was stung.