Distribution and characteristics

We can see 16 bumblebee species including one alien species in Japan.
This page introduces a simple method of species identification by combining the location, color pattern, and body shape.

TORA-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus diversus Smith, 1869

Bombus diversus is one of the major bumblebee species in Japan. They are observed in forests, grasslands, agricultural and residential areas from late April to October. TORA-MARUHANABACHI in Japanese means tiger-bumblebee. The thorax is orange, and the abdomen is orange with black stripes like "tiger." Older workers become a dull color. Individuals inhabiting in cooler areas have a more yellowish color. The subspecies B. diversus tersatus inhabits Hokkaido island (the northern island of Japan), and their color tends to become yellowish. Their face and tongue are long.

KO-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus ardens Smith, 1879

Bombus ardens is also one of the major bumblebee species in Japan. They emerge in March, which is the earliest among Japanese bumblebees, and their colonies collapse in July. Females of the original subspecies B. ardens ardens in Honshu island (the main island of Japan) are black body with orange tail (photo on the left). Some of them have a broken yellow band on the abdomen (photo on the center). Males are generally yellow body with orange tail (photo on the right).

Females of subspecies B. ardens sakagamii in Hokkaido island have dark yellow band on upper thorax, and cream band on the abdomen (photo on the left). Females of subspecies B. ardens tsushimanus in Tsushima islands (the offshore of northern Kyushu island) are cream-yellow body with orange tail. They are similar to males, but they have black hair on the head and no black stripes on the abdomen (photo on the right). Male's color pattern of both subspecies is the same as that of the original subspecies.

KURO-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus ignitus Smith, 1869

Bombus ignitus is one of the major species in low altitudinal areas, but they are declining in some regions (a near-endangered species in some prefectures). They are observed mainly in Honshu island from April to October. KURO-MARUHANABACHI in Japanese means black-bumblebee. Females of B. ignitus are black body with orange tail (photo on the left) like females of B. ardens ardens. Their hair is short and abdomen looks like a rounded rectangle rather than a round. Their face has almost the same height and width. Males are yellow body with orange tail and black bands on the thorax and abdomen (photo on the right).

OO-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus hypocrita Perez, 1905

Bombus hypocrita is one of the major species in cool areas. In the western regions of Japan, they are found only in higher altitudinal areas. They emerge in middle April, and their colonies collapse in October. Females of the original subspecies B. hypocrita hypocrita in Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu islands are black body with orange tail and a cream band on the upper thorax and a light yellow band on the abdomen (photo on the left). Females of the subspecies B. hypocrita sapporoensis in Hokkaido island have broader bands. Males of B. hypocrita are yellow body with orange tail and black bands (photo on the right) like males of B. ignitus, but they have black hair on the head, and lighter yellow hair on body.

MIYAMA-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus honshuensis Tkalcu, 1968

Bombus honshuensis is an endemic species. They are observed in the south-western regions in Hokkaido island and mountainous regions in Honshu and Shikoku islands from May to October. MIYAMA-MARUHANABACHI in Japanese means mountainous-bumblebee. Females of B. honshuensis have orange thorax with lemon yellow on both sides, and cream-yellow abdomen. They look like females of B. diversus, but they have no clear black stripes. Some males of B. honshuensis have a more yellowish color.

HIME-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus beaticola Tkalcu, 1968

Bombus beaticola is an alpine species in Japan. They are observed in higher altitudinal regions than B. honshuensis. They emerge in May, and their colonies collapse in October Female's body color is ranging from cream, yellow, to light brown. Some of them have a black band on the thorax (photo on the left), and others have an unclear or no band (photo on the center). Males have a more yellowish color with no band (photo on the right). Queens are cream-yellow body with orange tail and black bands on the thorax and abdomen.

NIPPON-YADORI-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus norvegicus japonicus Yasumatsu, 1937

Bombus norvegicus is found in a limited area of Honshu island from June to September. They have a unique lifestyle, kleptoparasitism. They do not produce workers. Queens lay their eggs in the nests of B. beaticola. Then, workers of B. beaticola raise larvae of B. norvegicus. Their color pattern is similar to their host B. beaticola. They have sparse hair and no pollen basket because they do not need to collect pollen.

NISE-HAIIRO-MARUHANABACHI / HAIIRO-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus pseudobaicalensis Vogt, 1911 / Bombus deuteronymus Schulz, 1906

Bombus pseudobaicalensis and B. deuteronymus are almost indistinguishable because their difference is only the presence or absence of black hair bunch on the part of the abdomen. B. pseudobaicalensis is common species in Hokkaido island from late May to October. They are observed in Hokkaido island, Aomori and Iwate prefectures in Honshu island. B. deuteronymus deuteronymus inhabits Hokkaido island whereas B. deuteronymus maruhanabachi inhabits a limited area in Honshu island. B. deuteronymus maruhanabachi is a rare subspecies. They have gray and slightly yellow body. There is a dark color area on the center of thorax, and clear black stripes on the abdomen.

USURI-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus ussurensis Radoszkowski, 1877

Bombus ussurensis is a rare species. They are observed in a limited area of Honshu island from May to October. Their thorax color is olive green, but sometimes almost light yellowish brown. They have clear black stripes on the abdomen. Their body shape is similar to B. diversus and B. consobrinus.

NAGA-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus consobrinus Dahlbom, 1832

Bombus consobrinus is a rare species. Here we call NAGA-MARUHANABACHI B. consobrinus according to traditional classification, but a recent study indicates that NAGA-MARUHANABACHI may be a different species from B. consobrinus. They are observed in a limited area of Honshu island from late May to September. Their thorax color is yellow with a red band. Their body shape is similar to B. diversus and B. ussurensis, but their tongue is longer than that of them.

EZO-NAGA-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus yezoensis Matsumura, 1932

Here we call EZO-NAGA-MARUHANABACHI B. yezoensis according to traditional classification, but B. yezoensis is the synonym of B. consobrinus. They are observed in Hokkaido island from June to September. Their color is yellow-brown with clear black bands on the thorax and abdomen. Their tongue is longer than that of B. diversus.

SHURENKU-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus schrencki Morawitz, 1881

Bombus schrencki inhabits Hokkaido island. They are observed from late May to September. Their color is similar to that of B. honshuensis, but B. schrencki does not inhabit Honshu island. Their color is also similar to that of B. diversus, but they have lemon yellow hair on both side of the thorax, and no clear black bands on the abdomen.

AKA-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus hypnorum Linnaeus, 1758

Bombus hypnorum inhabits Hokkaido island. They are observed from middle April to August. AKA-NARUHANABACHI in Japanese means red-bumblebee. They often have a reddish-brown color, but some have orange or yellow-brown. They are similar to deep orange type of B. diversus, but their tail is white. Their body is rounder than that of B. diversus.

NOSAPPU-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus florilegus Panfilov, 1956

Bombus florilegus is a rare species. Here we call NOSAPPU-MARUHANABACHI B. florilegus according to traditional classification, but B. florilegus is the synonym of B. cryptarum Fabricius, 1775. They are observed in a limited area of Hokkaido island from June to September. They are black body with yellow bands on the upper thorax and abdomen. They look like B. terrestris, but they have black tail and lighter yellow bands. However, they sometimes have white hair on tail, which makes difficult to distinguish from B. terrestris.

SEIYOU-OO-MARUHANABACHI, Bombus terrestris Linnaeus, 1758

Bombus terrestris is an invasive alien species in Japan. They are expanding their range in Hokkaido island. They are also found in some regions in Honshu island. They emerge in May, and their colonies collapse in October. They have a clear color pattern of black body with white tail and deep yellow bands on the upper thorax and abdomen.