Forest cuckoo bumblebee

This little beauty, Bombus sylvestris, was wandering about on our kitchen floor this morning. She is a Forest cuckoo bumblebee. That means she lays her eggs in the nest of one of our regular bumblebees the Early bumblebee. The host queen is killed, and her worker bees then raise the larvae of the cuckoo. Rather like the birds!
We took Misty to Roudsea Woods again for a pleasant evening stroll. Funnily enough there was a cuckoo calling!