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Photo: Volucella bombylans (female)
By Dr Nikki Gammans, Short-haired
Help collect key data bumblebee Project Manager

on pollinating insects You may have noticed many
different types of insects visiting the
flowers in your garden. If you look
a little closer, you may see some
By Dr Barnaby Smith, Public Engagement Manager insects that look like a bee, but not
quite! Often these ‘wannabees’ are
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is a you will be adding extra value to your hoverflies, which mimic the colour
partner in the UK’s Pollinator Monitoring survey records. of bees. This acts as a warning to
and Research Partnership (PoMS), All the information you need to carry a predator that they can sting and
which aims to establish how insect out a FIT Count and submit your data, bite. However, a hoverfly cannot
pollinator populations are changing is provided on the pollinator research A bee or not a bee . . .
across Great Britain. do either of these, they have just
webpage run by our project partners at the evolved to confuse their predator!
The partnership runs a series of citizen UK’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
science surveys to help collect data on With reports of dramatic losses of How to tell the difference between a bee and a hoverfly An example is the male Volucella
how our pollinators are doing.
insects occurring across the globe, There are a few key character differences bombylans, top and the queen Garden
One survey anyone can do is to carry and concern about what this means for between a bee and hoverfly. Beginning with bumblebee (Bombus hortorum, bottom).
out a FIT Count (Flower-Insect Timed wider biodiversity and ecosystem health, the head; a bee has long antennae whereas a
Count). This simple survey collects data there has never been a more important hoverfly has short antennae. The compound eye
on the total number of insects that visit time to document evidence of change of a bee is also much smaller than a hoverfly. A
a particular flower. All you need to do is in populations of pollinating insects. It bumblebee has mandibles (biting mouth parts)
spend ten minutes sitting and watching would be wonderful if Trust members but a hoverfly does not.
insects and flowers. help to collect this vital evidence, and
tag Bumblebee Conservation Trust when
FIT Counts can be done anywhere,
including gardens and parks, in warm, submitting data.
dry weather any time from April to Illustrations by Geoff Allen
September. If you can carry out several
counts at one location during that time

Hoverfly Bumblebee
Visit www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/projects/pollinator-monitoring When looking at the rest of the body a bee has
four wings and a hoverfly has two. A bumblebee
also has a wasp waist, which means between the
thorax and abdomen there is a curved gap which
is not present in a hoverfly. You will also see that
a hoverfly will often hover in mid-air (as the name
suggests) and appear to dart more in flight.
Finally, many female bees have pollen baskets
or scopa (long hairs on abdomen) used to collect Photos: Steven Falk
pollen, which a hoverfly does not. The one thing
they do have in common is that they are both
Photo (above): Dandelion Photos (left): Lavender; excellent pollinators!
16 16 (above) White Dead-nettle 17