A new phase of the international rescue mission for the short-haired bumblebee (Bombus subterraneus) gets underway this week, as project officer Nikki Gammans departs for New Zealand to retrieve queen bees for re-introduction to England next year.

To mark the occasion, a newly revised version of the popular Field Guide to Bumblebees by Martin Jenner and Mike Edwards, sponsored by Natural England, is launched today (Wednesday 11 November). The guide features new pages on the short-haired bumblebee in anticipation of its arrival home to the South East of England.

Dr Nikki Gammans, project officer for the reintroduction partnership, which includes Natural England, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, RSPB and Hymettus, said: “This is a pivotal stage in the reintroduction project. A team of volunteers will join me in searching for queens of the short-haired bumblebee which will be bred at Plant and Food in New Zealand and the next generation of queens will be returned to the UK for release in 2010”.

The only publication of its kind, The Field Guide to Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland, uses photographs, a unique Quick Identification Chart and symbols to help the reader identify species. The decision to revise and reprint the guide responds to public demand. The last remaining copies of the previous edition were selling for around £100 online, ten times that of the normal retail amount.

Martin Jenner, bumblebee expert and co-author of the field guide, said: “The guide has been important because it has made bumblebee identification accessible to people from all walks of life, and thus has helped provide much needed research data – crucial for bumblebee conservation.

“Bombus subterraneus is included because it will be essential for researchers to be able to identify the species in the future; we need to know why it is declining in Europe and invaluable research data will become available through this reintroduction. My ultimate wish is that everyone, in due course, will be able to see all the rarer bumblebees species back in their former haunts!”

Natural England sponsors both the re-introduction project and the field guide.

Dr Tom Tew, Chief Scientist for Natural England, said: “Bumblebees have had a tough time over the last few decades, with over half of our 25 species of bumblebee now in decline and two already extinct in England. These are important species, not least for the role they play in pollinating the crops that provide us with food.

“The field guide is an important tool for bumblebee fans and by providing funds for the short haired bumblebee conservation project will have a direct impact in helping restore one of England’s lost bumblebee species and creating habitats to benefit all pollinators.”

Dr Gammans will be selling the Field Guide to Bumblebees at speaking events around the country next year, all proceeds of which will go back into the re-introduction of the Short-haired bumblebee project.