Another Bumble Bee

there is a large group of canadian thistle nearby that attracts honey bees, bumble bees, wasps and other insects. today i noticed yellow finches there, eating the thistle seeds. great wildflower.

i have been taking my insect photos there. the bees seem to be used to me snaping away with my camera.

a little about the bumble bee, bombus. from www.everythingabout.com they are found primarily in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, often ranging farther north and higher in altitude than other bees. fifty species of bumble bees are known in north america.

the colonies of bumble bees, unlike those of honey bees, only survive during the warm season; new queens hibernate alone to begin another colony the following spring. In addition, there are usually fewer individuals in a bumble-bee colony than in a honey-bee colony, and bumble bees do not use a dance to communicate the location of food to other members of the colony, as honey bees do. also, although bumble bees collect nectar and store it as honey, they do not hoard large amounts of it, as do honey bees.

they are among the few insects that can control their body temperature. In cold weather, queens and workers can shiver their flight muscles to warm themselves, allowing them to fly and work at lower temperatures than most other insects. their large size and heat-conserving hairy coats also help them stay warm. these features enable them to live in northern latitudes and alpine altitudes. bumble bees are sensitive to habitat disturbance. in england, several species are thought to have become extinct in past decades due to land clearing and agricultural practices.

the bumble-bee nest is not organized into flat, vertical combs like that of honey bees but grows instead into a mound of capsule like cells. Toward the end of summer, the queen begins to lay unfertilized eggs that develop into drones. female offspring produced at this time become new queens, and mating takes place soon afterward. the drones and workers then die, and the new, mated queens fly off in search of safe places to hibernate.

bumble bees are important pollinators of many plants. both queens and workers collect pollen and transport it back to the colony in pollen baskets on their hind legs. workers are small if born early in the year, and large if born later in the year.

bumble-bee colonies are now used extensively in greenhouse pollination of crops such as tomatoes and strawberries.