They have
comparatively short tongues (see the photograph below showing a male extending
his tongue) and prefer flowers that form a distinct landing platform, such as
daisies, dandelions and thistles. The heads of these flowers are made up of
many small florets each containing only a small quantity of nectar. While on
these flowers the bees probe many times and walk around the flower rather than
fly. So the bees are going for a low yield of nectar per probe, but minimum
time and energy between probes. |

A Bombus lapidarius nest.
Taken from The Insect Societies, by E. O. Wilson, 1972. The Belknap Press,
Harvard University. This is an excellent book covering all the social insects,
and has a very good chapter on bumblebees. It should be available in any good
library. |