Bumblebees of New Zealand

Bumblebees were introduced into New Zealand to fertilise crops such as clover.
Use the pattern banding as a guide rather than colour, as colour can vary widely within a species.
These diagrams show the size range of workers of each species (early season workers, raised by the queen alone, are often quite small) :

The 'castes' of bumblebees within a colony are: a 'queen' (the reproductive female), 'workers' (non-reproductive females) and males.
All three are similar in appearance, males lack stings and lack pollen baskets on their rear legs and have longer antennae than the females. Queens are generally much larger than workers and males, and often have variations of the worker's patterns and colours.

(Other guides: teara website guide(needs flasplayer to display properly), NZ Bumblebee conservation trust, interactive guide to British species which includes the three species in NZ at UK nhm) menos ↑