Red-tailed Bumble bee queen - Bombus lapidarius

Thee are my favorite of the bumble bees
the first photo is very large She is a queen, all black except for the tail.
The second photo is smaller he is the male you can see he has a yellow stripe and yellow round the face.
I think the Orange colour on these bumble bees is very attractive. They are unlikely to sting unless their nest is endangered

Great photos, Beryl - especially that second one!

Lots of Red Tails around here just now. They're MY favourite Bumble Bee too!:)

Thank you Catherine. :)
The second one was much smaller than the queen she was huge. I like the yellow muzzle (if one can call it that) on the mails