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Most visited pages in March 2008 |
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The bumblebee body. This is the introductory page to the body section. This page has drawings (see diagram below right) and photographs which show the parts of the bumblebee body with links to pages specialising in those parts of the body, so if you want to know where the pollen basket is, or what the sting looks like, this is the page for you. |
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Lifecycle, On this page there is a drawing summarising the entire colony lifecycle (see also at the bottom of this page) with links to more detailed pages. You will also learn that bumblebees are most definitely not cold blooded. How the queen broods her eggs. Just what happens to all the stored faeces once the blind gut is no longer blind. And some figures on bumblebee mortality. |
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The main Frequently Asked Questions page. Found a nest? keep finding bees in your house? Want to know about Latin names? Finding holes in your deck? You'll find out what to do on this and the linked pages. |
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The sting. Yes bumblebees can sting, and there's a photograph of a sting on the right. You can find out more on this page, and why a bumblebee doesn't die after she stings you but a honey bee does. |
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6 common bumblebees. This page has photographs, descriptions and links to more specialised pages on the bumblebees most commonly seen in the UK and Northern Europe. There are also likns to pages of less common bumblebees, North American bumblebees, and other bees. |
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Foraging. Contains information on nectar robbing, foraging preferences, communication, profit and loss, scent marking, and distances flown. Also links to other behaviour pages. See the worker on the right with her tongue in a flower. |
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Bombus terrestris. The page dealing in detail with this species which is the most popular species sold for commercial pollination. |
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Nestboxes. On this page you will find tips on how to provide nest boxes and nest sites, where to site nest boxes, food and nesting materials, and other nest box related information. |
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Help bees. What you can do to help bumblebees, gardening tips, plant lists, and how to help bees if you haven't even got a garden. |
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Wings. How to age a bumblebee just by looking at its wings (see the photograph of the young bee below), how the wings are zipped together and more. |
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Welcome to The Bumblebee Pages. The menu above will take you to the major sections of the web site. If you are not sure which page you should be looking at try Google's search engine at the top right of this, and every page.
Bumblebees are large, hairy 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.
The photograph below shows the extended sting of a Bombus lapidarius queen. You don't often see stings as bumblebees are reluctant to use them. For more on this go to the sting page. |
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On the left is a young worker. How do I know she is young? By looking at the edges of her wings. For more go to the wing page.
On the right you can see a simple diagram of the bumblebee body naming the various parts. On the body page you can find out about the adaptations to the bumblebee body, and the linked pages go into more detail. |
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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!
With the recent
popularity of using bumblebees in glasshouse pollination they will probably be
found in most parts of the world before long (see below), especially Bombus
terrestris which seems to be the most popular species sold for this
purpose.
On the left you garden will be filled with happy bees covered in pollen if you plant for them and/or provide them with a nesting site. |
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On the left is a diagram showing the yearly life cycle of a bumblebee colony, for more information, drawings and photographs visit the lifecycle page. |
Pink38 is the name
of the bee pictured on the right. I caught and marked her just after 10 o'clock on the morning of 4th August 1995 while she was
foraging on Cirsium arvense (thistle). I saw her another 10 times over
the next few days, always on the same clump of thistles, or on a nearby clump
of Centaurea nigra (knapweed). Pink38 wasn't special in any way. I
marked 232 bumblebees between the 2nd and 6th of August 1995, and saw 58.6%
again at least once. A week or two later, after I'd finished all the work, I went out with my camera to
find the lane still full of bumblebees with numbers on their backs. Pink38 was
just outside the door as usual, on her clump of thistles.
Recently there have
been proposals to introduce bumblebees into Australia to pollinate crops in
glasshouses. Now, though I dearly love bumblebees, I do think that this might
not be a very good idea. No matter what security measures are taken, mated
queens WILL escape eventually and that will probably lead to their
establishment in the wild. And yet another non-native invasion of a country
that has suffered more than most from such things. This invasion may or may not
be benign, but isn't it better to err on the side of caution?
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