Photo: Brown-tailed eagle / CC BY-SA 4.0

Bombus muscorum

Moss Carder Bee

A medium-sized carder bumblebee (14–18 mm) with uniformly orange-brown hair covering the entire body, lacking dark bands — one of the most distinctive bumblebee colourations. It has a long tongue and favours deep flowers like clovers and vetches. It nests above ground in grass tussocks or moss, carding nesting material together. Colonies have 50–120 workers. In Switzerland it is endangered (EN), practically confined to fen meadows and extensively managed wet grasslands, with strongholds in a few valleys.