The message
from "Miss Perspicacia Tick" contains these words:
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
The message
from "Banana" contains these words:

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...

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/