2020 February 21

 

   Gordon Hart writes from the Highlands, February 20: 

 

     The sun brought out several bee species and one butterfly. Anne-Marie saw it perched briefly and I was able to get fleeting glimpses in flight, and at a distance it appeared to be dark orange-brown and black . We are pretty sure it was a California Tortoiseshell.  Unfortunately, I could not relocate it for a photo. The bees were more obliging. There were several identical bumblebees, possibly Bombus melanopygus, the Black-tailed Bumblebee. I have enclosed a photo of one on Heather flowers.

 

     Thanks to Lincoln Best and Annie Pang who both concur that it is B. melanopygus, which, they write, is usually the first bumblebee to appear in spring.

 

Black-tailed Bumblebee  Bombus melanopygus (Hym.: Apidae)  Gordon Hart