|
This page, and the pages linked from it show the
yearly lifecycle of a bumblebee colony. You can either follow the lifecycle in
chronological order by looking at all of the pages in turn, or you can skip to
whatever part you are interested in by clicking the links below.
|
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. |
The
workers forage.
When a new worker emerges her hair is silvery in
colour and her wings are crumpled and soft. Within an hour or two her hair
dries and starts to change to the colours seen in foraging bees, and her wings
will harden in about a day. Most of the wax for building cells is secreted from
between the abdominal segments of the youngest workers. So, once the nest is
established, the youngest workers tend to stay within the nest for the first
week, performing household duties before emerging to forage. However in a new
nest the workers can start to forage after only two or three days, so this
means that the queen can spend more time egg laying.
When a worker emerges
into the light for the first time she memorizes landmarks to enable her to
recognise the nest entrance. She does this by making a zig-zag flight over and
around the nest entrance. She also navigates by the sun and has an inbuilt
clock to compensate for the rotation of the earth. |
Although Bombus terrestris is usually the first queen to emerge,
it is quite often B. pratorum workers that are
seen first as B. pratorum nests reach maturity faster than other
species.
The average worker's adult life lasts about
four weeks. In one study it was found that 29% of the workers died every 5 days (Brian, 1952). Bombus lucorum workers averaged 30 days (Brian, 1952), and B. terricola, a N. American species only 13.2 days (Rodd, Plowright & Owen, 1980). In that short time she might develop
foraging preferences, that means she
might prefer to gather her nectar and pollen from a particular species, shape
or colour of flower. Many flowers are simple disc shaped, e.g. like a daisy,
and it is easy for any insect to get at the nectar and pollen. Other flowers
are not so easy, and some are very difficult for the insect to get at the
reward of pollen or nectar. The insect has to learn how to find the reward, and
this takes time. So it makes sense that once the insect has found out where the
reward is and how to get at it, she concentrates on that type of flower.
Monkshood (Aconitum napellus) is a typical "difficult" flower, and it
can be pollinated only by bumblebees; no other insect has the weight, strength
and know-how to get inside it.
On the left the worker is foraging from a
legume flower. These all have a similar construction. The bottom of the flower
holds the stamen with the pollen attached. The nectar is located at the top, in
this flower inside the green bit. So the bee must push open the flower to get
at the reward. This is fairly easy for bumblebees as they are relatively heavy
insects, but other insects may not be able to get at the nectar. As the bee
pushes the flower open the stamens which have been held in the lower, fused
petals spring loose and hit the bumblebee abdomen covering it with pollen. The
bee gets the nectar reward, and as she visits the next flower some pollen on
her abdomen will rub off on to the style of the flower and fertilise it -
pollination!
|
 |
 |
Not all adults leave the
nest to forage, some of the smallest workers may stay in the nest and perform
"household" duties; these small workers may also have weak or deformed wings,
but will probably live longer than the foragers and have less worn coats and
wings, as they rarely fly. Workers can also exude wax for building cells to
store honey and pollen, and the empty chambers that have held larvae are also
used for storage. The size a colony
reaches depends on the species concerned and the food supply, some can have as
few as 30 bees, and Bombus terrestris can reach
as many as 400. Most workers return to the nest every night, but some may spend
the night outside, sheltering under flowers as the males do. This can happen if
there is a sudden change of weather in the evening and the bumblebee becomes
stranded outside. The bee on the left had been out all night and was covered
with dew when I took this picture. The reason she has a number is that I was
recording which bees foraged on which flowers and needed a method of
recognising individual bees.
Next,
males and new queen eggs are laid>
 |
(C) Copyright 1997-2008 |
|
|
ParisPages
Stonehaven,
Scotland
Vietnam Pages
|
![[]](http://m3.moostik.net/img/?pseudo=bumblebeepages&cpt=lifeCcolDev&option=invisible)