Page 17 - Group 3

Lesson 29

The photo shows one of the favourite insects in Britain

known as the bumblebee. They are very different
from the normal honeybee as they can grow into quite

large insects. They have the characteristic yellow and
black stripes which are usually the markings of an

insect that carries a sting.

Although the bumble bee can sting, it is very rare for

this insect to sting people in England. A bumblebee
colony in England has about twelve bees, it is a very

small colony and they invariably suffer one or two
losses during the summer.

There was a time in Britain when there were about 64

different types of bumblebees, but that number has

sadly dwindled to relatively few today. An interesting
feature of the bumblebee is that during the summer

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