As part of an ongoing series of Western Morning News guides to nature, Charlie Elder looks at common and widespread insects – this week bumblebees

THE buzzing of bumblebees bumbling from flower to flower is the sound of summer – and a welcome one as, like many of our pollinators, they have been in decline.

They are charismatic furry-bodied insects, animating our gardens as they search for nectar and pollen, and are quick to reward those who plant bee-friendly flowers with regular visits.

Unlike honeybees that have large colonies thousands-strong and stockpile stores capable of seeing them through the winter (enabling us to plunder excess honey supplies), bumblebees start small colonies from scratch every year, as only hibernating mated queens make it through the colder months. Queens, which tend to be large and clearly marked, are the easiest to identify and can be seen in spring prospecting for places to create nests. Colonies consist of a queen, worker bees and males.

Plump and hairy, bumblebees are well adapted to our northern climate, able to rise early to get to work and are late to bed in the evenings. They can even warm up before flight by shivering their muscles, a bit like revving a car engine.

We have 25 species of bumblebee in the UK and some are similar in appearance and can be tricky to tell apart. A number are extremely rare, and there are also six species called ‘cuckoo bumblebees’ that invade the nests of others and use the workers to raise their young.

Here are a few of our most common and widespread species, which can be seen in gardens and the wider countryside.