Shrill Carder Bee
Fast Facts
Latin name: Bombus sylvarum
Notable feature: Makes a high pitched buzz when flying
Conservation Status: Vulnerable
Where in the UK: Five isolated populations in England and Wales: Thames Estuary, Somerset, Gwent Levels, Kenfig-Port Talbot, and South Pembrokeshire.
Shrill Carder Bee (Bombus sylvarum) © Steven Falk
The Shrill Carder Bee (Bombus sylvarum) is one of the UK’s most threatened bumblebees. It has declined to the point where it is only found in five isolated areas of England and Wales.
It gets its name from the distinctive high-pitched buzz it makes while flying. This bumblebee has a greyish colour, with a single wide band of black hairs across its thorax, two on the abdomen and a pale orange tail. Queens are much bigger than workers or males.
Shrill Carder Bees can be found in wildflower-rich areas of unimproved grassland, including sand dunes, drainage ditches, shingle beaches and chalk downs.
Nests are usually found on the ground or just below the surface, amongst thick vegetation.
- Size: Queen 10 – 18mm, Worker 10 – 15mm
- Life span: Queens have an annual lifecycle. Workers/Males a few months.
- Diet: This is a long-tongued species of bumblebee, and forages on a range of plants including Red Clover, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, White Deadnettle, Meadow Vetchling Black Horehound and Red Bartsia.
- Reproduction: Over-wintering queens emerge in April/May, feed on nectar and establish new nests. Workers are reared in wax cells and go on to rear the next generation of young in the nest on pollen and nectar. Typically, a nest will have one queen and between 50 and 70 workers in it. Males and daughter queens emerge late July to September. When the daughter queens have been produced, the colony begins to decline. Daughter queens mate then find a safe place to over-winter and emerge the following May to begin the cycle again.
- When to see: Can be seen from April to September. Queens on the wing from April/May, workers appear roughly six weeks after a nest is established.
- Population Trend: Declining in Great Britain
- Threats: The loss and fragmentation of suitable wildflower-rich habitat is the major threat to this species. Key sites must be protected (including brownfields), and networks of wildflower-rich habitat must be restored at a landscape-scale – for example via B-Lines.
- Interesting Fact: Queen Shrill Carder Bees tend to produce a higher-pitched buzz than the males and workers.
How you can help:
Buglife is helping the recovery of populations of Shrill Carder Bee and other wildlife via our projects and campaigns. We have worked with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and other partners to develop the Shrill Carder bee Conservation Strategy, and are restoring and enhancing habitat for Shrill Carders via our work at Canvey Wick, Natur am Byth! and B-Lines.
You can help Shrill Carder Bees and other pollinating insects by planting wildflowers, or supporting our work.
Buglife B-Lines are an imaginative and beautiful solution to the problem of the loss of flowers and pollinators. B-Lines are mapped ‘insect pathways’ running through our countryside and towns, along which we are restoring and creating a network of wildflower-rich habitat stepping stones. Linking existing wildlife areas together, creating a network, like a railway, that will weave across the UK landscape. More information about B-Lines and how you can help pollinators can be found here.
Join a recording scheme and log your finds – send any records/sightings to BWARS or download the iRecord app and get recording!
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