Apidae

March to October

Korea, Japan, and China

It is around 17~23-millimeter-long. Queen bees are the biggest one among bombus ignitus. Females (up) have dense black fur on the body and orange fur on the two segments at the end of the abdomen. Males (down) have dense yellow fur on the entire body, black fur horizontal-stripes on the upper back and middle of abdomen, and yellow fur at the end of the abdomen.

Queen bees go to underground around August after mating. Then, they occupy places voles or moles used to live the following spring when azalea flowers blossom, and form groups. In Japan, they reimport bees massively propagated in Europe and use them as pollinators in greenhouse horticulture.