Today I have a spring drawing for you. This is the common carder bumblebee (Bombus pascuorum), one of the most numerous bumblebees in the area where I live. It is by no means the easiest to identify, though. Its colouration is very variable and some colour forms are strikingly similar to other bumblebee species.
Bumblebees are said to have innate preference for blue colour. It means that a bumblebee that has never seen flowers before will be more attracted to blue ones. I don’t know how universal it is – I found research done only on a few species. What is interesting, there is some degree of individual variation in colour preference – not all bumblebees and all colonies of the same species like exactly the same colour.
The innate preference can be quickly modified after a young bumblebee starts foraging, and learns which flowers are most rewarding in her environment. Therefore, we can see bumblebees foraging on all colours of flowers (even on red ones – see my previous post!)
Non-honey bees 
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