Hi Nigel,
I've had fun & games sorting out B. sylvestris males in the past. In "Files"
under "Maggie's pics", there are 3 picss of different colour forms of B. sylv.
males. The "banded" one is normal here; then I found a melanic version; and
then one that appeared to have a khaki abdomen down to the tail. I know that
these are all B. sylvestris males, because I prepared the genitalia and they
were all verified as correct. The other clue is that they are nest parasites or
B. pratorum - who absolutely love pollinating raspberries! Perhaps the colony
your bee came from is nearby to your raspberries. I currently have 3 x B.
pratorum nests near my raspberry patch.
'bye for now,
Maggie



--- In bwars@yahoogroups.com, "gateside.gilligan@..." <gateside.gilligan@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi Janet
>
> You may well be right, but my possibly flawed reasoning before was thus:
> 1) I'd already identified a female B sylvestris in the garden, which
> had a quite broad black band, followed by a tiny brown tip to the tail.
> 2) But this specimen has no obvious black band towards the tail, but has
> an extensive pale band, immediately followed by a more ginger colour
> than brown
> 3) I have one photo that seems to indicate that the last 2 abdominal
> segs are this colour, not just the tip
> 4) the pale yellow is quite extensive at the top of the abdomen too.
>
> This seems to not comply with my description of B sylvestris male, which
> ought to be fairly like the female.
>
> Is my reasoning still wrong, or have I been caught out by an odd
> variation?
>
> Regards
> Nigel
>