Iceland is more than spectacular volcanoes, ground quakes and rupturing continents. It has bees, too. Some say that the first founder bumble bee blew in with the wind. Others think that Iceland’s first bumble bee hitched a ride aboard a Viking ship, hidden among hay, ponies, and sheep on the 1,000-kilometre journey from the north of the British Isles. Bee DNA shows that the first bumble bee, Bombus jonellus, likely arrived on two distinct occasions, so both theories may be right. More recently, between 1959 and 2010, four other bumble bee species were found in Iceland. All these species are well-represented throughout northern Europe and likely arrived as stowaways.
Photo by Ivar Leidus
I have some problems identifying things. I am badly colour-blind. Also I often mistake my wife for a hat, so Dr. Anselm Kratochwil of the University of Osnabrück has kindly identified the species for me. The following photographs were taken in Reykjavik by family members and me.
This is my favourite photo. It was taken on a cool rainy summer morning in the hilltop gardens at Hallgrímskirkja (Hallgrímur’s Church). The bees had been foraging the night before and camped out overnight. In the morning, they began twitching their muscles to warm up as soon as the rain ended and the sun shone. On this Centaurea cyanus (bachelor’s button) are Bombus hypnorum, left, with brown thorax hair and black abdomen, and on the right, Bombus lucorum, the White-tailed bumble bee. These are different bee species, of course, so their placid sharing of a bed was quite surprising.
Here’s another Bombus lucorum, foraging on Centaurea cyanus:
Yet another B. lucorum. It’s important, of course, to not frighten the bee.
The next bee, Bombus hypnorum, is the newest accidental arrival in Iceland. Once restricted to continental Europe, in the past 20 years it has colonized Britain and Iceland. Typically, Bombus hypnorum has a dark ginger thorax (mid-section) but this one has an unusual black thorax. She is visiting flowers of Syringa vulgaris (lilac).
By now, Bombus lucorum’s thorax of light-yellow and black bands of hair and its abdomen of light-yellow and black bands followed by a white tail is familiar to you. The plant species is Philadelphus coronarius, which we call mock orange.
Thanks again to my sister, Jane, who took the best of these photos and to Anselm Kratochwil for all the identifications. I regret that I didn’t see honey bees in Iceland (another non-native insect on the island), but perhaps next time.
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Fascinating, I had no idea that there were bumble bees in Iceland.
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I have been enjoying your blog for sometime, especially this one…it touches my beekeeping soul.!
Another beekeeper and myself enjoyed a two day Bumblebee Idetification Workshop in Kamloops a few years ago. I have enjoyed reading your series of articles in the BeesCene magazine.
I’ve been a back-yard beekeeper for over 45 years and backpacked and camped around Iceland 20 years ago..
Your blogs come to me via a Greendor Relaxation blog that I also get. .Sometimes the”Greendoor Blog” in my inbox is your Badbeekeeping blog, sometimes it is an Entomology blog (that I also get), and sometimes it is actually the Greendoor Blog. It is very strange, actually intriguing to me, but definitely not a problem needing fixing .so don’t. ” rock that boat ” for me. I enjoy all three, however way they arrive.!
This started happening about the same time that you wrote an interesting letter mentioning that you were having some sort of problem getting your blog sent out. It was the same time that “Greendoor” changed her Webpage carrier( I’m not sure if ‘carrier’ is the correct term…hope you know what I mean)
Angelika Baum of the Greendoor blog is a personal friend who is a “Personal Life-skills” counsellor in her “office” and also on the “Net”. She is not at all concerned, just curious. She hasn’t received any mention from anyone else of her ‘many followers’ about this “intriguing glitch”.
However, I am a ‘very curious cat’ and wonder if you have had any other followers mentioning this “intriguing glitch” ………
Looking forward to hearing from you….
Margaret Jones.
mmhjones@hotmail.com
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The dark one with white tail is probably Bombus soroeensis:
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Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. It does look like B. soroeensis, but that species has never been spotted in Iceland.
You might like to look at this paper, Bumblebee fauna of Iceland, which “…gives new records for all bumble bee species living in Iceland: B. hortorum, B. hypnorum, B. jonellus, B. lucorum, B. pascuorum, B. pratorum and B. terrestris.”
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