Red Saddlebags - _TNY_1619
Even though it's impossible to see, this black bumblebee, pollinating the pink variety of great masterwort (Astrantia major), has a bright red butt, making it a red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius).
It has picked up some equally red pollen of some flower and stored it in the corbiculae on the tibia of the hind legs.
I just learned that honey bees, bumblebees, stingless bees, and orchid bees have corbiculae while (most) other bees have a similar structure called scopae instead.
Red Saddlebags - _TNY_1619
Even though it's impossible to see, this black bumblebee, pollinating the pink variety of great masterwort (Astrantia major), has a bright red butt, making it a red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius).
It has picked up some equally red pollen of some flower and stored it in the corbiculae on the tibia of the hind legs.
I just learned that honey bees, bumblebees, stingless bees, and orchid bees have corbiculae while (most) other bees have a similar structure called scopae instead.