#3509 · 🐝 bees, wasps & ants
Red-tailed Bumble Bee
🇳🇱 Steenhommel ·Bombus lapidarius
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Bombus lapidarius is a species of bumblebee in the subgenus Melanobombus . Commonly known as the red-tailed bumblebee , B. lapidarius can be found throughout much of Central Europe. Known for its distinctive black and red body, this social bee is important in pollination.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 613 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #7 most seen of the bees, wasps & ants in NL.
- 47,137 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Red-tailed Bumble Bee
- Nederlands
- Steenhommel
- scientific name
- Bombus lapidarius
- class
- Insecta
- order
- Hymenoptera
- family
- Apidae
- sightings in NL
- 613
- sightings in Europe
- 25,672
- sightings worldwide
- 47,137
- GBIF records in NL
- 87,415
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
relatives· Apidae
#3503 📷 10Western Honey Bee
🇳🇱 Europese honingbij
Apis mellifera
DD 👀 3.2k in NL
#3504 📷 9Common Carder Bumble Bee
🇳🇱 Akkerhommel
Bombus pascuorum
LC 👀 3k in NL
#3507 📷 10Early Bumble Bee
🇳🇱 Weidehommel
Bombus pratorum
👀 865 in NL
#3511 📷 10Tree Bumble Bee
🇳🇱 Boomhommel
Bombus hypnorum
LC 👀 589 in NL
#3517 📷 7Buff-tailed Bumble Bee
🇳🇱 Aardhommel
Bombus terrestris
👀 367 in NL
#3533 📷 10Garden Bumble Bee
🇳🇱 Tuinhommel
Bombus hortorum
👀 179 in NL
#3536 📷 7Vestal Cuckoo Bumble bee
🇳🇱 Grote koekoekshommel
Bombus vestalis
👀 159 in NL
#3542 📷 7Hairy-footed Flower Bee
🇳🇱 Gewone sachembij
Anthophora plumipes
LC 👀 126 in NL
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 57619, Wikidata Q1950127, GBIF 1340301, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.