Bilberry bumblebees are most often found in Scotland’s iconic moorlands and mountains. These are complex, internationally important habitats that include heathlands and peatlands.
The Bilberry bumblebee’s scientific name is Bombus monticola, which loosely translates as ‘the buzzing mountaineer’. It is sometimes referred to as the Mountain bumblebee, or the Blaeberry bumblebee in Scotland.
It is a distinctive species, black with a fiery orange-red tail and two yellow stripes on the thorax. Queen bumblebees need pollen from bilberry flowers to start off their nests in the spring.
They nest amongst tussocky grass, on or just below the surface of the ground. As well as bilberry, this long-tongued species feeds on a range of other flowers including heather, white clover and bird’s foot trefoil.
Photo: © Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Action Needed
- Promote our BeeWalk citizen science scheme, in which volunteers record essential data about bumblebee populations, particularly in the more remote areas where the Bilberry bumblebee is found.
- Promote action to tackle climate change.
- Advocate for national and local policies, including advice and agri-environment schemes where appropriate, that create and protect well-connected, flower-abundant and appropriately-managed moorlands and promote restoration of peatlands.
- Advocate for evaluation of the 2017-27 Pollinator Strategy for Scotland and for a strengthened Pollinator Strategy from 2027, with monitoring and evaluation of progress towards each outcome.
- Promote the actions in our Bumblebee Manifesto.
Threats
- Habitat loss and fragmentation. Poor management of moorland – through over-burning, over- or under-grazing, trampling, and draining of peatlands – reduces the diversity of flowering plants in these fragile ecosystems and damages the soil structure.
- Climate change: the Bilberry bumblebee thrives in colder upland areas and is dependent on species-diverse moorlands, in particular where there is bilberry and heather. It is therefore very vulnerable to climate warming which will cause a decline of this habitat.
- Wildfires cause the loss of food plants and damage to nests.
- As with all bumblebees, the use of pesticides/herbicides can have both lethal and sub-lethal effects on this species.
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