Welcome to www.bumblebee.org. The menu above and on the left will take you to the major sections of the web site. If you are not sure which page you should be looking at try the search box at the top right of this, and every page.
The site is divided into 7 major areas:
- Bumblebees which deals solely with bumblebees, and was the original part of the site.
- Invertebrates, which deals with all the other invertebrates.
- Homework answers, where you'll find hints and tips to common questions set as biology, ecology, botany, zoology homework, there are also definitions of common terms in biology. This part of the site was set up as I kept getting email that was obviously set questions, and the same questions came up again and again.
- Window box gardens, this was started when we were exiled to central Paris, and 2 north-facing window boxes were all the garden available, however it was amazing the wildlife those window boxes attracted. You'll find plant lists, hints and tips, etc. that you can use for window boxes, pots, or even gardens.
- Torphins, this is the village in north-east Scotland where we are now located. In this part of the site you can find photographs of invertebrates found locally, where to see them and when, also links to pages with more detailed information.
- Downloads, this is where you can download free ebooks.
- The blog, this is the less formal section where some of the entries are even off subject.
What is a bumblebee?
Bumblebees are large, hairy social insects with a lazy buzz and clumsy, bumbling flight. Many of them are black and yellow, and along
with ladybirds and butterflies are perhaps the only insects that almost everyone likes.
Queen and worker bumblebees can sting, and the photograph above right shows the extended sting of a Bombus lapidarius queen. You don't often see stings as bumblebees are reluctant to use them, and in all my years of working with them I have yet to be stung. For more on stings go to the sting page.
It is believed that the earliest fossilized bumblebee dates from the Oligocene, around 30 million years ago.
Bees and Einstein
It has been widely reported that Einstein said that without bees to pollinate our food crops humans would die off in just 4 years. Apparently Einstein never said this at all. It is just another urban myth. However if bees do die off it is fairly certain that life as we know it will ccease with in a short time, and that there will be far fewer humans around, as there will be so much less for them to eat. So a world without bees will probably also be a world with far fewer humans.
For more on what we are doing to our world you can read my rant on global warming and pollution at the bottom of the Invertebrate page.
Where are bumblebees found?
Bumblebees are
found mainly in northern temperate regions, though there are a few native South
American species and New Zealand has some naturalised species that were
introduced around 100 years ago to pollinate red clover. They range much
further north than honey bees, and colonies can be found on Ellesmere Island in
northern Canada, only 880 km from the north pole! |
above the sting of a Bombus lapidarius queen, and below a Bombus terrestris/lucorum worker foraging.
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