Any bumblebee would be a worthy winner of invertebrate of the year but a gorgeous giant ginger bumblebee fondly known as the flying mouse? There are about 250 species of bumblebee and Bombus dahlbomii is the largest. View image in fullscreen Bombus dahlbomii is being outcompeted by the European buff-tailed bumblebee, which was introduced for fruit tree pollination. But the invasive bumblebees are also helping invasive non-native plant species from Europe, such as broom, spread more rapidly. Bombus dahlbomii received a fabulous nomination from the researcher Anton Gradišek in Ljubljana, Slovenia, a partner in an academic project developing bioacoustics – the analysis of sound recordings – to better study the endangered bumblebee.