Bug FAQBrown-banded Carder-Bumble bee
Bombus humilis · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Apidae
Also called: Brown-banded Carder Bee, Carder Bumble Bee
The brown-banded carder bee is a medium-sized bumblebee with a long tongue; queens are 16 to 18 mm and workers 10 to 15 mm long. It has a yellow-orange thorax with beige flanks and usually a broad dark brown band on the front of the abdomen. It lives on vast grasslands in most of Europe (except Ireland and Iceland) and also in parts of Asia, often at high alpine altitudes.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The thorax is typically yellow-orange on top with beige sides, and most individuals show a wide dark brown band on the front of the abdomen.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Queens measure 16 to 18 mm and workers 10 to 15 mm in length, and the species has a relatively long tongue.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It prefers extensive grasslands and, in Central Asia, lives at elevations of 3,000 to 3,900 m.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Visits flowers such as red clover, knapweed, and vetches for nectar.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Queens emerge from hibernation in spring, build nests on the ground among grass tufts, and the colony flies from May to September.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
Adults are active from about May through September.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Found across most of Europe west of Russia (excluding Ireland and Iceland) and also in Turkey, the Tibetan plateau, northern China, Mongolia, and parts of North Korea.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
It resembles the moss carder bee and shares similar habitats, so careful identification is needed.
Source: Wikipedia
Questions people ask
How can I tell this bee apart from the moss carder bee?
Look for the broad dark brown band on the front of the abdomen; the moss carder bee lacks this distinct marking.
Source: Wikipedia
When are brown-banded carder bees active?
Their flight period runs from May to September.
Source: Wikipedia
What plants do they visit?
They commonly forage on red clover, knapweed, and vetches.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Apidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown-banded_carder_bee
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.