Nature - Wild Life - Insect Life - Bombus Terrestris, The Buff-Tailed Bumblebee or Large Earth Bumblebee. Is one of the most numerous bumblebee species in Europe. It is one of the main species used in greenhouse pollination, and so can be found in many countries and areas where it is not native, such as Tasmania. Moreover, it is a eusocial insect with an overlap of generations, a division of labour, and cooperative brood care. The queen is monogamous which means she mates with only one male. Bombus Terrestris workers learn flower colours and forage efficiently.
Bombus Terrestris is in the bumblebee tribe, Bombini. It is in the genus Bombus, which consists entirely of bumblebees, and the subgenus Bombus sensu stricto. This subgenus contains closely related species such as Bombus affinis, Bombus cryptarum, Bombus franklini, Bombus ignitus, Bombus lucorum, Bombus magnus, Bombus occidentalis, and Bombus terricola. There are nine recognized subspecies: B. terrestris africanus, B. terrestris audax, B. terrestris calabricus, B. terrestris canariensis, B. terrestris dalmatinus, B. terrestris lusitanicus, B. terrestris sassaricus, B. terrestris terrestris and B. terrestris xanthopus, each with a distinctive coloration scheme. Bombus Terrestris are pollen-storing bees that generally feed and forage on nectar and pollen. The queen is between 20 and 22 mm long, males range from 14 to 16 mm, and workers from 11 to 17 mm.
Bombus Terrestris is most commonly found throughout Europe and generally occupies temperate climates. Because it can survive in a wide variety of habitats, there are populations in the Near East, the Mediterranean Islands, and Northern Africa as well. Additionally, it has escaped captivity after being introduced as a greenhouse pollinator in countries where it is not native, so this bee is now considered an invasive species in many of these places, including Japan, Chile, Argentina, and Tasmania. Nests are usually found underground, such as in abandoned rodent dens. Colonies form comb-like nest structures with egg cells each containing several eggs. The queen will lay egg cells on top of one another. Colonies produce between 300 and 400 bees on average, with a large variation in the number of workers.
Queens become the main female individual to reproduce in a future colony. There is only one per colony. Her sole responsibility is to lay eggs after she founds a nest.
A solitary queen hatched from her abandoned colony initiates the colony cycle when she mates with a male and finds a nest. She will stay in this nest over winter and then will lay a small batch of diploid (female) eggs in the spring. Once these hatch, she tends the larvae, feeding them with nectar and pollen. When the larvae are grown, they pupate, and about two weeks later, the first workers emerge. This is known as the initiation phase of the colony. Workers forage for nectar and pollen for the colony and tend later generations of larvae. The workers are smaller than the queen, and usually die while foraging in the jaws of predators like birds or robber-flies. The foraging range and frequency of workers depends on the quality and distribution of available food, but most workers forage within a few hundred meters of their nest.
Bombus Terrestris generally forage on a large variety of flower species. Their highest activity is in the morning, with their peak time being noted at around 7-8 am. This is likely because it gets progressively warmer in the afternoon, and foragers prefer ambient temperatures of around 25 °C during nectar and pollen collection.
Bumblebees and honey bees are extremely influenced by an innate preference for blue and yellow color. When they have no training, they will often just visit flowers that naturally attract them. However, it is generally thought that bees will learn to visit more nectar rewarding flowers after experience associates the reward with the color of the petals.
In my video you can see how it goes, fly, collect pollen, drill in the foliage, you can see the tongue and you can hear the noise it makes in flight.
30 май 2024
