ECOLOGIST Bryan Pinchen is all of a buzz following the publication of his first wildlife book.

The Marlborough-born naturalist whose family lives in George Lane has brought out what is believed to be the first definitive book on bumblebees.

He has published A Pocket Guide to the Bumblebees of Britain and Ireland himself.

Although he has had a number of articles published previously, including one on crickets, this is his first book. Copies are available from the White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough, priced £6.

Mr Pinchen, 33, lives in Lymington, in Hampshire, and works as a freelance ecologist with organisations including English Nature.

He is a former St John's School student and developed his love of wildlife from Cooper's Meadow behind his former home in George Lane.

"I became interested in the life of bumblebees about seven years ago," he said.

Mr Pinchen said 22 species of bumblebee were known in Britain and Ireland his own drawings of them appear in his book and the best habitat was provided on the largely undisturbed Salisbury Plain ranges where 17 species had been found.

It's vital, he said, that the kind of habitat bumblebees like is protected because in the last 30 years about ten species have become regarded as of critical conservation concern with at least one kind becoming extinct.

One fallacy his research has been able to dispel is the old country belief that bumblebees do not sting.

He said: "I can assure you from first hand experience that they do sting and it hurts."

Unlike honeybees, however, bumblebees do not leave their stings behind.