So … a little background info on the title of the blog:

One of the bugs you catch when going out to look at birds, butterflies and what not is that you start to want to encounter new species. In the beginning it may just be enough to go out and see what’s around your home, in your garden … you’ve probably spent time flipping through field guides studying the small distribution maps that accompany each specie … with the first steps out the door you may recognise that Magpie (Pica pica) and the coming days each time you go out you may notice small groups of magpies (called parliaments) in the fields surrounding your village … at a certain point you’re ready to see something new and not just what you com across on a daily basis. You can do two things:
– look closer at the things around you.
– go further afield to new types of habitat (go to a nearby river, walk up a hill nearby to a large area of pine trees).

Cullum’s Bumblebee (Bombus cullumanus) is one of those species you just really hope to come across one day (usually through luck). Hence the title of the blog. Not only will me finding that bumblebee require me to look closer at the things around me, but it will also require me to go a little further afield that where I’ve been up till now …
Will ever find this species? Who knows. They say it is extinct in this part of Europe but they also say that more research is required into the distribution of the species. Who are they? The bee experts.
I’m stubborn and will try my best. I’ve already found certain species of butterfly and dragonfly that weren’t thought to fly here so who knows …

Cullum’s Bumblebee will probably be one of the most difficult searches, but for many species there will be a similar urge to try to find them in Cantabria.

Cheers,
bart.

Should you want to know more about Cullum’s Bumblebee go to the:
– Atlas Hymenoptera run by Pierre Rasmont (a highly rated Belgian scholar on bees).
– IUCN Red List page for the species to get more information about habitat and distribution (you’ll note that P. Rasmont is one of the assessors there).
– Flickr page created by the excellent Steven Falk, who will be coming out with a book on European bees soon.
– A difficult/academic article (PDF) by Paul Williams et al. (including P. Rasmont), from 2012, on just how extinct this extinct bumblebee is.
– I’ll write a more extensive post in the future on Bombus cullumanus.