Brown-banded Carder Bee (Bombus humilis)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - hymenopteran > Bumblebee |
| Red List Status: | (Not Relevant) [(not listed)(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Bombus humilis |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | Illiger, 1806 |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | (not listed) |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Recent (post-2000) local increases in range, possibly in response to warming climate, as well as targeted habitat work. Distribution still much retracted from former range (was up to N Yorks, Cumbria). Requires more well-connected flower-rich grassland to expand range successfully including appropriate vegetation structure (tall but open) for nesting and plentiful Fabaceae. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Needs bumblebee-specific management as a minimum, does better with species-specific management. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | As well as large areas of late flowering interconnected grassland, this species requires tall open grassland with a particular thatch structure typically now largely found in rough grass/edge of scrubby areas and banks for nesting and hibernation habitat. Scale/connectivity seems the most important factor |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Combination - sufficient |
| Species Comments: | Difficult to separate from similar species (Bombus muscorum), but far more common in southern England |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Conduct large-scale habitat creation/restoration and management to create open grassland habitat with long-corolla late flowering plants (esp. Fabaceae), early forage in May, and long grass for nesting. Conservation actions for this species relatively well-understood, but need to be deployed at a sufficient scale to make a difference. Ensure that habitat creation approach is working by examining species' response through repeat visits and monitoring at sites where management has taken place
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Habitat creation
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Provide targeted land management advice in buffer areas in and around its current distribution, on how to create connected, flower rich grassland with rough grassland for nesting, late season flowering, such as clover and knapweed, and provide in person support and advice to land managers in implementing and maintaining this habitat.
Action targets: 8. Species recovering
Action type: Advice & support
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: National
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Increase accuracy of monitoring, surveys and ad hoc recording through more training of recorders. This may also include developing reliable field characters to separate from muscorum, by testing morphological characters such as hair at the base of the tegulae, extend of brown bands, presence of halo of golden hairs around thorax in muscorum, against the genetics taken from tarsal clip samples of both species.
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.