I have written this page in response to the large number of e-mails that I receive from people about large, hairy insects that make a noise. Some of these I can tell straight away are not bumblebees, but some others are a little more difficult to identify. The first step is to find out if it is in the Hymenoptera family, that is the family of bees, wasps, ants and sawflies. The following questions were prepared for larger (over 5mm) species of adult European insects, but they may work with adult insects from other countries too. If you can answer yes to all the questions you have a member of the Hymenoptera, if you can answer no to even a single question then you do not have an insect that is part of the Hymenoptera family.

• Does it have two pairs of wings with the front pair larger than the rear pair? It is not always easy to see the two pairs of a bees wings as the hind wings are zipped to the front pair, so look carefully and if necessary put the insect in a jar in the refrigerator for a few minutes to slow it down.
• Are both pairs of wings membranous for their whole length? This means that it doesn't have a hard pair of wings like beetles, grasshoppers or some bugs do.
• Are the wings are transparent or almost so, and not covered in scales as butterfly wings or hairy as caddis fly wings are?
• Are the wings without the dense network of veins found in dragonfly and mayfly wings?
• Do the tarsi have 4 or more segments? The tarsi are the segments found at the end of the leg just before the claws.

If you can answer yes to all the above your insect is either part of the Hymenoptera family or a scorpion fly. Scorpion fly males have a tail like a scorpion, and both males and females have a very long beak-like head.

Next you must do the same to find out if you have a bumblebee.

• Does the insect have a visible waist? If it doesn't it is probably a sawfly.
• Are the antennae (feelers) elbowed? The first segment of the antennae should be very much longer than all the following segments, and the antennae are often bent at the join between the long segment and the first short segment.
• Are there 13 or fewer segments (including the long one) in the antennae?
• Is the insect more or less covered in hair of a variety of colours but with the colour of the body underneath the hair always black?
• Is the first tarsal segment, i.e. the one just after the pollen basket of the hindmost leg broad and with hairs?
• Does the hindmost leg have either a flat, shiny pollen basket (females), or a dull, hairy but still flat area instead of a pollen basket (males)?
• Is there a space between the bottom of the eye and the mandible (jaw)? i.e. the eye doesn't reach right down to the mandible?
• Does it visit flowers to drink nectar with a tongue that is at least 5mm long?
• When not in use is the tongue usually folded under its body?
• Does is make its nest in a ready made space, e.g. a mouse nest, a ball of grass? Bumblebees do not dig their own nest and do not tunnel into wood. They may modify an exisiting space though.

Well if you've got this far you deserve a prize! But if you thought it was difficult to work your way through these questions spare a thought for me, they took ages to write, and I'm still far from happy with them.

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