Vestal cuckoo bee  (Bombus vestalis)

Information authenticated by Dr O. Prys-Jones with the support of the British Ecological Society:
http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org

• Caste: in social insect colonies, a group of individuals that are structurally and/or behaviourally distinct, performing certain tasks. Examples are the soldier caste of termites and ants, and the workers of bees.
• Genus: a category used in taxonomy, which is below ‘family’ and above ‘species’. A genus tends to contain species that have characteristics in common. The genus forms the first part of a ‘binomial’ Latin species name; the second part is the specific name.
• Larvae: stage in an animal’s lifecycle after it hatches from the egg. Larvae are typically very different in appearance to adults; they are able to feed and move around but usually are unable to reproduce.
• Palaearctic: the region that includes Europe, the part of Asia to the north of the Himalayan-Tibetan barrier, North Africa and most of Arabia.
• Parasites: organisms that derive their food from, and live in or on, another living organism at the host’s expense.
• Pupae: stage in an insect’s development when huge changes occur, which reorganise the larval form into the adult form. In butterflies the pupa is also called a chrysalis.

1. ITIS, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (September, 2009)
   http://www.itis.gov
2. Prys-Jones, O.E. (2004) Pers. comm.
3. Natural History Museum Bombus (January, 2004)
   http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/bombus/ps.html
4. Prys-Jones, O.E. and Corbet, S.A. (1991) Bumblebees. Naturalists’ Handbooks 6.Richmond Publishing Co. Ltd, Slough.
5. The Natural History Museum’s Bombus site: Bombus vestalis (September, 2009)
   http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/bombus/ps.html#vestalis
6. The Bumblebee Working Group. (2003) Help save the bumblebee…get more buzz from your garden.English Nature, Peterborough.