Common Carder Bee vs Long-horned Ant-loving Beetle

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Common Carder Bee Long-horned Ant-loving Beetle
Scientific Name Bombus pascuorum Claviger longicornis
Order Hymenoptera Coleoptera
Family Apidae Staphylinidae
Size 9-18 mm 2-3 mm
Habitat Underground Underground
Diet Nectar Feeders Omnivores
Regions Western Europe, Central Europe, Northern Europe Central and Southern Europe
Conservation Least Concern Least Concern

Common Carder Bee

A fluffy ginger-brown bumblebee that builds nests on the ground surface using moss and grass. It has one of the longest flight seasons of any European bumblebee.

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Did You Know?

Workers 'card' moss fibres over the nest like wool, which gives the species its common name.

Long-horned Ant-loving Beetle

A minute, blind pselaphine rove beetle with elongate antennae relative to its body size. Like its congeners, it is an obligate myrmecophile entirely dependent on host ants for nutrition.

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Did You Know?

The elongate antennae of this blind beetle serve as its primary sensory organs for navigating the total darkness of its underground ant-nest home.