This furry wee beastie was inside the lone Bindweed flower above the compost heap in our back garden this afternoon. I'm pretty sure it is the Common Carder Bumblebee, or Bombus pascuorum, which exhibits bright ginger hairs on its thorax (our only Bumblebee with this colour hair on its thorax) and flies well into October, even November sometimes.
It has been pretty cold, windy and overcast today in Reading - no weather for a Bumblebee. I think it was taking shelter, and had fallen asleep inside the flower, as it wasn't feeding or moving much!
I don't blame it!
NB. A day later. (25/10/07) The Bindweed flower closed (as they always do) last night, trapping our sleepy Common Carder Bumblebee. When it felt energetic enough, this afternoon, it did manage to sqqqeeeze out of its floral jail (which didn't open properly at all today), and this enabled me to get a better shot of it - below. You can quite clearly see its ginger hair on its thorax in this shot - very distinctive.
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