Diamond Jubilee bumble bee queen

I filmed what I believe to be a white-tailed bumble bee queen (Bombus hortorum) on a lupine in my mother's garden in England on the eve of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Judging from the strings of Union Jacks that were draped between cottage windows and shop fronts nationwide, the Brits were planning to make this particular Jubilee an excuse for a beer-infused four-day holiday weekend to celebrate 60 years of Queen Elizabeth 11 occupying the British throne. And they all seemed to be enjoying themselves, even as it began raining cats and dogs, when the Queen kicked off the celebrations by leading a parade of over 1,000 boats down the River Thames in London, an event intended to evoke the nautical history that led Britain and her kings and queens to "rule the waves" internationally for about four hundred years.

Either way, this bumble bee queen definitely fit the Diamond Jubilee occasion: large and stately, she was emitting a loud bumble as she drifted from flower to flower, with a delicious white stripe on her bottom. According to the notes that I found at a website dedicated to conserving British bumble bees, this queen is a very long-tongued species that prefers deep flowers, including foxgloves, delphiniums, honeysuckle and lupines.