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Welcome! Today we’re answering the question, what is a bumblebee, and how is it different from a honeybee? It’s a bumblebee vs honeybee showdown!
First off, all bees are insects. Their closest relatives are wasps and ants, and they all have 6 legs. Both bumblebees and honeybees belong to a group of insects called the “corbiculate” bees, or bees which have a pollen basket. This is my new favourite thing. As they travel from flower to flower corbiculate bees have a little pouch where they store the pollen they collect. Think of it as a bee stopping at the market to fill up a tiny messenger bag with groceries and you’re not far off!
Now let’s talk about the differences. Honeybees are smaller and thinner than bumblebee insects, and they have more of a defined segmentation between their head and their abdomen. They also have two distinct sets of wings. They actually kind of look like wasps!
Bumblebees the insect on the other hand are your classic bee. They are larger, fluffier and, and you can’t see any divisions in their body. Bumblebees have two sets of wings, but the back wings are smaller and attached to the front wings with little hooks, so it kind of looks like they only have one. This is part of the reason for the myth that bumblebee the insect flight somehow defies the laws of physics (spoiler alert: it doesn’t).
Are bumblebee insects dangerous? Both bees have stingers which they use to defend themselves and their hives, however, unlike wasps and hornets, bees rarely sting unless they are provoked. In any event, avoiding agitating these animals is always a good strategy, as it is possible to have serious allergies to their stings.
Honey bees are highly social insects, they build large honeybee hives and produce and store a LOT of honey. Each honeybee hive can house up to 50,000 bees, and can produce up to 200 pounds of honey per year! That’s a lot of honey!
Where do bumblebees live? Bumblebee insects also live in hives, however their homes are much smaller, often housing only 250 individuals. Do Bumblebee insects make honey? Not really. They do store pollen in little wax pots that look similar to the Honeycombs that you’re used to, which along with nectar, is fed to developing larvae, the baby bees.
If you’ve seen a honeybee, I’ll bet it was the Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera), which was domesticated in Europe almost 10 thousand years ago. The Western Honey Bee has since spread all over the world and is responsible for the delicious honey that we buy at the grocery store. There is even honey that was buried for years with Egyptian mummies and is still fresh! While the Western Honey Bee is one of only about 7 honey bee species worldwide, There are many wild species of bumblebee the insect all over the world. Canada alone has over 40 species of native bumblebee insects! Because they have evolved alongside many of our native plants, they play a critical role in maintaining our ecosystems and many of our favourite crops.
Why do honeybees make so much honey? They use that honey to feed on during the winter to stay alive when there is no food for them to collect, in a process called overwintering.
Now that we know some of the differences between honeybees vs bumblebee insects, does it matter? Honeybees and bumblebees are both important pollinators, which means that when they fly around to flowers collecting pollen and nectar to eat, they also transfer pollen between those flowers, helping plants make seeds that will eventually grow into the next generation. Pollination is critical to the food we eat, and most of the plants we love.
Image Sources
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Content Sources
Williams, P. H., Thorp, R. W., Richardson, L. L., & Colla, S. R. (2014). Bumble bees of North America: an identification guide. Princeton University Press.
30 мар 2021
