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Bumble bees all belong to the genus Bombus in the family Apidae, the same family as honey bees, digger bees, squash bees, orchid bees, and stingless bees.
Bumble bees are important pollinators of wild flowering plants and crops. As generalist foragers, they do not depend on any one flower type. However, some plants do rely on bumble bees to achieve pollination. Loss of bumble bees can have far ranging ecological impacts due to their role as pollinators.
The rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was once commonly found across the northern part of eastern North America, extending south along the Appalachian Mountains. It is now listed as an endangered species in the US and Canada. The rusty-patched bumble bee is generally larger, and stouter than the half-black bumble bee.
These bees occur over much of the world but are most common in temperate climates, their lifespan being 28 days and there are over 250 species.
The queen has a buff-colored 'tail', while the workers have white 'tails' with a faint buff line separating them from the rest of the abdomen. Males have buff-tinged tails and have black hair on their faces. Buff-tailed bumblebees are the biggest of the bumblebees and are found in lowland areas. The queen bumble bee can live for up to 12 months.
The new bumble bee colonies start with a queen, who seeks out a suitable location for a nest. Once she has found just the right place, she begins making wax pots to house developing larvae, and for storing food for herself and her offspring. Later, as new workers are reared and emerge from the nest, they help to grow the colony by providing food and carrying out other duties.
They often nest in the ground, commonly in deserted bird or mouse nests. Bombus species are social bees; i.e., they live in organized groups. Each nest has a queen, drones (males), and workers. Psithyrus species, having no worker caste, enter Bombus nests to lay their eggs, which are then cared for by Bombus workers.
There are two honey bee sexes, male and female, and two female castes. The two female castes are known as workers, which are females that do not attain sexual maturity, and the queen females are larger than the workers. The males, or drones, are larger than the workers and are present only in early summer. The workers and queens have stingers, whereas the drones are stingless.
Males cannot sting, and females only do so when they feel threatened. Their stings, however, are painful and could be dangerous to those with allergies.
Many ask, how can they even fly, the answer is, its wings, rather than being rigid aero foils, consist instead of an extremely elastic and supple protein known as resilin. This can be stretched to three times its length without tearing, allowing bumblebees to move a relatively large mass of air using wings with a small surface area. The fluid dynamics behind bumblebees' flight are different from those that allow a plane to fly. An airplane's wing forces air down, which in turn pushes the wing (and the plane it is attached to) upward.
Bumblebees look for certain types of flowers. Those with shorter tongues need short, open flowers, with nectar within easy reach. This includes flowers from the daisy family and alliums, which have several small flowers on one stalk. Bumblebees with long tongues can enjoy deeper flowers like honeysuckle.
Males cannot sting, and females only do so when they feel threatened. Their stings, however, are painful and could be dangerous to those with allergies.
Many ask, how can they even fly, the answer is, its wings, rather than being rigid aero foils, consist instead of an extremely elastic and supple protein known as resilin. This can be stretched to three times its length without tearing, allowing bumblebees to move a relatively large mass of air using wings with a small surface area. The fluid dynamics behind bumblebees' flight are different from those that allow a plane to fly. An airplane's wing forces air down, which in turn pushes the wing (and the plane it is attached to) upward.
Bumblebees look for certain types of flowers. Those with shorter tongues need short, open flowers, with nectar within easy reach. This includes flowers from the daisy family and alliums, which have several small flowers on one stalk. Bumblebees with long tongues can enjoy deeper flowers
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