Short-haired bumblebees to be reintroduced to UK from Sweden

Attempts to bring the short-haired bumblebee back from extinction in Britain with the help of an "expat" colony that survives in New Zealand have been abandoned in favour of using bees from Sweden, according to new research being presented at the British Ecological Society's annual meeting tomorrow.

DNA testing revealed that the New Zealand population was highly inbred, and that the Swedish bees had more in common with those once found across the south of England.

Next spring, researchers plan to release between 30 and 100 queen bees in Dungeness, Kent – where Bombus subterraneus was last sighted more than 20 years ago.