Articles by Oisín Duffy

Last week looked at the Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius), this week we will be looking at another species which also has a red tail, the tiny Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum). B. pratorum is a relatively […]

This week we’ll be looking at a highly distinctive and beautiful species of bumblebee. The red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) is a beautiful species which appears to be more abundant throughout the southern half of the […]

Last week we started on the Heath Bumblebee (B. jonellus) one of the trickier species, I only say it is tricky in that it has a confusion species the Garden Bumblebee (B. hortorum), which we’ll […]

Last week I wrote about the Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum) and I mentioned how it’s very distinctive but how there is also one confusion species, that’s what I’ll be writing about this week. The […]

The Common Carder Bee (Bombus Pascuorum) is one of our most common bumblebee species in Ireland. The species is quite distinctive and once it is seen, it cannot really be forgotten. It’s also very lucky […]

Following on from my last piece on the Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), it now makes sense to look at one of its most similar species, the White-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lucorum). White-tailed bumblebee Queens are large […]

Ireland has 20 native species of bumblebee, but if you’re only starting to learn about these wonderful creatures there isn’t much need to worry about all of them. Some are very rare and others have […]