Bombus lapidarius

Bombus lapidarius

6 common species

Bombus terrestris/lucorum

North American species

Is it a bumblebee?

Other bees

Bombus lapidarius is probably the most easily recognised species. The workers have the same colouring as the queen, but they are much smaller; some of the early workers are no bigger than house flies. The males (below) have similar colouring, but with more yellow hair.

These bees prefer to nest underground and the base of dry stone dykes and walls are popular locations. The size of the nest can vary considerably from over 200 bees to less than 100. The cuckoo species of B. lapidarius is B. rupestris.

The range of B. lapidarius is expanding northwards in the U. K. As a child in Aberdeen I cannot recall seeing a single individual, but now they are often the most commonly seen bumblebee.

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.

Above you can see a drawing of a Bombus lapidarius nest. It shows that a bumblebee nest is not the tidy, precise affair that a honey bee hive is. Bumblebees commonly use an old rodent nest. This nest is an abandoned mouse nest.

On the left is a male. His tongue is extended as he moves from floret to floret. He is brushing some debris, pollen probably, off his head and thorax with his front leg. Males do not collect pollen as they have no pollen baskets.

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