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General description of Bombus hortorum the Garden bumblebee
Bombus hortorum has a long head and a slimmer body than B.
terrestris/lucorum. While flying between flowers that are close together,
e.g. foxgloves the bee often keeps its long tongue extended. Body lengths, queen
17-20, workers 11-16, male 14-15
Bombus hortorum is rather similar in colouring to
B. terrestris and B. lucorum workers. The
main, and easiest to spot, difference is that B. hortorum has two bands
of yellow hairs on its thorax. This can be seen on
the bee on the left. B. hortorum has the longest tongue of any bumblebee
in the UK, it is usually around 1.5 cm long, but some bees can stretch to over
2 cm. This means that it can forage on flowers that have deep corollas that
would keep out other bees. You will hardly ever see it on open or daisy type
flowers unless it is gathering pollen.
Below left is a male who has spent the night in this flower. When I came across him it was early morning and he was cold and could barely move. He would soon return to normal once he drank some nectar and allowed the sun to warm him up. |
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Male patrolling circuts
All bumblebee males patrol mating circuts laying down a pheromone to attract new queens. Usually they patrol a species specific heights, and Bombus hortorum males patrol at less than one metre from the ground.
Long, narrow head
On the
right you can see a close-up of the, long narrow head of the queen above. B. hortorum have a
longer head than other species, and this combined with their long tongues
enables them to forage from flowers other bees cannot reach. In this photograph
the compound eye can be clearly seen as can one of the ocelli. |
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Long legs
In the photograph on
the left the bee is on a dandelion, this is because I put her there to show her long legs. B.
Hortorum prefers flowers such as red clover, cowslips, foxglove, vetches
and lavender. The workers and males are just slightly smaller than the
queen.
Tendancy to wards baldness
The photograph below right
was taken just below the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It shows a rather ragged hortorum
worker. Her thorax has a large bald patch on which the light is shining. I have
noticed that hortorum tend to have more balding workers than other species.
This may be because they specialize in the more complicated flowers, often
disappearing entirely within the flower, and rubbing their back against the
flower. Or it may be that they rub against things more when entering their
nest. Or perhaps they are just prone to premature baldness! |
Colony size and nesting sites
Bombus hortorum colonies are
fairly small and short-lived with an average life of around 14 weeks, and along with pratorum they have a
reputation for nesting in "unsuitable" places such as coat pockets, buckets and
inside lawnmowers, their preferred nest sites are usually on or just below ground. They are fairly placid bees and do not have large nests, so
if it is possible, it is best to leave them where they are. If you must move
the nest, for example, if it is inside a lawnmower, then do so late in the
evening when all the bees have returned. Get as much of the nest material as
you can into a small box with an entrance hole of about 1 cm and leave it
inside as close to the original spot as possible. If it is inside a shed or
building then any kind of container will do. If it has to be moved outdoors
then the container must be weatherproof and placed in a south-facing sheltered
spot. The cuckoo species of B. hortorum is B. barbutellis.
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