The body of bumblebees (length up to 35 mm) is densely covered with long fluffy hairs, creating a reliable heat-insulating cover. In different species, they form alternating red, yellow, red, gray, black or white bandages on the body.

250 species of bumblebees are known, distributed almost everywhere, except for Antarctica, some high arctic islands, zonal deserts, Central and South Africa and Oceania. They are found in New Zealand and Australia, where they have been successfully introduced. Bumblebees live mainly in the forest and forest-steppe zones, as well as in the mountain-forest zone, but they are also able to live in the highlands of the Andes, the Caucasus, the Himalayas and Tibet, and in the high arctic tundra (82 ° N) on about. Ellesmere in the Canadian Arctic and on about. Greenland. In the European part of Russia above 74 ° N. sh. on the northern island of Novaya Zemlya there are 3 species of bumblebees: the polar bumblebee Bombus polaris Curtis, the northern bumblebee B. hyperboreus Schonherr and the ice bumblebee B. glacialis Sp. -Schneider.

Bumblebees are the most important component of terrestrial ecosystems, primarily as specialized pollinators of entomophilous plants from the legume and burrow families, which are distinguished by the complex structure of flowers and with which a number of mutual adaptive traits arose in bumblebees in the process of coevolution. They have coscisting mouthparts (proboscis) for collecting nectar and a special device for collecting pollen on their hind legs (the so-called basket and heel). Bumblebees collect nectar in their honey goiter, and they clean the pollen from the hairs on the body and carry it on their feet in the form of dense lumps - pollen. The larvae are fed with honey and pollen, which the queens and workers collect from various flowering plants, preferring bright mass-flowering and nectar-producing plants. Many flowering plants, especially in the tundra, cannot produce seeds without cross-pollination by bumblebees. The distribution of such plant species and bumblebees in the tundra is closely interrelated, and the difference in the timing of their flowering is the result of competition between entomophilous plants for their pollinators, mainly bumblebees. Yields of berries, such as lingonberries, blueberries and blueberries, also depend on the activity and abundance of bumblebees.

In central Russia, bumblebees fly from late March to mid-October, with some species appearing in early spring, and some flying out after wintering only at the beginning of summer. In spring and early summer, only overwintered founding females, or queens, are found, which differ from workers in larger sizes and, accordingly, in a lower flight sound. After several days of active nectar feeding on early-flowering plants, which allows them to recover after wintering and stimulate the formation of eggs, the queens begin to search for suitable shelters for building a nest. Different types of bumblebees tend to prefer different types of shelters. Some arrange nests only underground, mainly in empty rodent burrows. Others build nests on the surface of the earth among grassy vegetation or in forest litter, others settle in hollows of trees or nests of birds, and often on the balconies of houses. The family of bumblebees develops in the nest during one spring-summer period. It consists of a founding queen, several tens or hundreds of working individuals (females incapable of fertilization), and young males and females (queens) that appear at the end of the development of the family.

So, the life of a bumblebee family begins in the spring. Having chosen a shelter, the queen alone establishes a nest in it, lining it with plant and other insulating materials, stores food for future larvae, builds the first wax cells and lays eggs in them, heats them and feeds the larvae hatched from them, from which, after pupation, the first ones develop. working individuals. The uterus stores the amount of honey necessary for the first time in a special wax "honey pot". Unlike honey bees, the queens of most bumblebee species lay their first eggs in the amount of 10-20 together in one so-called communal cell on a honey pollen dough, and the larvae develop together. Only in some species they are separated by wax walls or temporary pollen walls. Before pupation, the larva weaves a web cocoon around itself, all pupae are located in separate cocoons, covered with wax residues on top. The first workers are involved in the further construction of the nest, the preparation of food, the heating and ventilation of the combs, and the rearing of new workers, and then the queens and males. Workers of many species of bumblebees feed the larvae with honey-pollen dough, opening the wax walls of the cells, and in some species, special wax “pockets” attached to the larvae serve for this purpose. At the end of summer, young queens fly out of nests, mate with males, and then take refuge for wintering in hollows, burrows, soil or forest floor, and workers and males die.

The number of many species of bumblebees has been continuously declining in recent years due to the development of meadows, clearings, wastelands and forests, spring fires, deterioration of food conditions due to frequent haymaking on lawns, a decrease in the diversity and number of entomophilous plant species, chemical pollution of soil and vegetation, etc. In this case, ground-nesting bumblebees are especially vulnerable. Only a few species of bumblebees, such as, for example, the field bumblebee Bombus pascuorum (Scopoli), the city B. hypnorum L. and the oak forest B. lucorum L., are able to adapt to anthropogenic conditions and populate urban squares and parks. Other species need urgent measures to protect their natural habitats, therefore these species are included in the lists of specially protected animal species in the Red Data Books of the Russian Federation and its regions. Thus, out of 37 species of bumblebees and cuckoo bumblebees found in the Moscow Region, 14 species are included in the Red Book of the Moscow Region, in particular, fruit bumblebee B. pomorum (Panzer). One species, namely the steppe bumblebee B. fragrans (Pall.), is considered extinct in the region.

The small, brightly colored Lapland bumblebee Bombus lapponicus (Tabricius) and the larger Baltic bumblebee B. balteatus Dahlbom are widespread in the tundra zone from Scandinavia to Chukotka and Kamchatka, as well as in the Alpine belt of a number of Eurasian mountain systems. These bumblebees are active from late May to early September. In the tundra, they are distributed unevenly, preferring well-heated slopes of mountains and river valleys with forbs. Here, after the snow has melted, female founders find empty rodent nests, such as lemming burrows, or plant rags, from which they independently build domed nests at the base of sedge-moss tussocks. They can nest in the voids of the walls of houses.

Lapland bumblebee (Bombus lapponicus)

In a short summer period, only a small family manages to develop in Lapland bumblebees. Having founded a nest, the queen of B. lapponicus grows 10-12 workers from eggs laid in a wax cell, which then help her to incubate and sometimes feed another brood of workers and, after it, a new reproductive generation (males and young queens). Temporary supplies of honey and pollen are stored in special wax cells or in empty cocoons. Bumblebees are able to maintain a temperature in the nest 10-30 ° C above the environment. After fertilization, young females find places for wintering, and the rest of the population of the nest dies.

Earth Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Breeding, as the name implies, mainly underground, almost ubiquitous in the forest and forest-steppe zone of Europe. In recent years, its range in Russia has been noticeably expanding due to the widespread use of the earth bumblebee for pollination of various agricultural crops, primarily tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, strawberries and cross-pollinated cucumbers in greenhouses. This became possible after the development of industrial breeding technology for B. terrestris at the end of the 20th century.

In greenhouses, bumblebee families live in special hives for 1.5-2 months. The family of this species is usually large and can have up to 500 workers. Earth bumblebees are capable of causing shedding of sticky tomato pollen by vibration and then transferring it to other flowers, which ensures almost 100% fruit set. On the other hand, the use of this species for pollination of meadow clover inflorescences with deep flowers turned out to be ineffective, since the earth bumblebee has a very short proboscis and, in order to get nectar, is forced to gnaw through the clover flower from the side, bypassing the anthers. For this, he was nicknamed the "bumblebee operator."

Stone cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus (Psithyrus) rupestris (Fabricius))

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The long-awaited warmth has finally arrived. The gentle sun dried the soil. The willows are dressed in a golden mist of flowers. Warmed up and flew various insects. And among them are bumblebees, or rather - bumblebees. Yes, bumblebees. They are the only ones who from the whole bumblebee family were lucky enough to survive the winter and meet the spring. Their brothers and working sisters, who were born with them, died last autumn. And the bumblebees left their parental nest to become the founders of new bumblebee communities.

Now the females first of all need to be properly fed, otherwise they will not be ready to lay eggs. Therefore, insects awakened from hibernation are thoroughly reinforced by pollen. Then the bumblebees need to find a suitable place for the nest. The search may take more than one day. You have to spend the night where the evening cooling will overtake, and this is not always safe. In the morning, the bumblebees warm up and again go to look for a place. The search flight of the founding bumblebee is easier than the flight of the female who has already found a nest. He is short and somewhat nervous, "twitchy." And the bumblebee flies heavily into the already arranged nest. Its cargo is either nectar that fills the goiter, or balls of pollen - pollen - collected in baskets on the hind legs. A caring mother must prepare food for her unborn children.

The first to fly in the spring in the middle zone of our country are meadow bumblebees ( bombus pratorum). Contrary to its name, it is a typically forest species, usually nesting in stumps and hollows. Bumblebees of this species are real dandies: their outfit consists of a bright yellow wide collar on a dark head, the same golden stripe encircles the middle of the abdomen, and at its end is a fluffy orange skirt. Behind the meadows, garden bumblebees begin to search for housing ( B.hortorum). They also have a yellow collar and a ring, behind which is a wide black band with a white trim at the bottom. Even later - in late April-early May - stone bumblebees appear ( B.lapidarius), followed by field ( B.agrorum), earth ( B.terrestris) and urban ( B. hypnorum). By the middle of May, the forest bumblebee wakes up ( B.silvarum) and mutable ( B. variabilis), which, like motley ( B. soroensis), does not have a typical outfit.

By the end of May-beginning of June, bumblebees finally acquire housing. Usually they make minks with long (up to 2 m) passages-corridors. But different bumblebees have different tastes. Some can live in a barn, in the attic, or take a fancy to a pile of manure, garbage, very often make nests in rotten stumps. One big stone bumblebee felt great in a flower pot. Female yellow moss bumblebee ( B.muscorus) settled down next to the nest of swallows at a height of 4 m. Another bumblebee of the same species settled in an empty birdhouse. Perhaps the most amazing discovery of a bumblebee family is described by I. Khalifman - he found it in the mouth of a stuffed dog.

After arranging housing, bumblebees begin to actively replenish stocks, collecting nectar and pollen. Now that the female has a cozy home, her special wax glands begin to secrete wax sheets. She removes them from her body, kneads them with her mandibles and molds a wax jug - the first honey cell. The female has such cells closer to the exit. And in the depths of the mink, she places vessels with special food made from a rammed head of pollen moistened with nectar. This is food for the larvae, and the jug in which it is located is the larval cell.

And now comes the solemn moment - the first testicle is laid in the cell. After that, the bumblebee carefully seals the cell with a lid, but then opens it, puts new ones in and seals it again - there can be 6–7 and even 15 testicles in one cell. When they are set aside, the bumblebee presses her belly against the jug and warms them. After a few days, larvae hatch - small white blind worms. They are very voracious. The founding bumblebee opens the jugs and carefully delivers nectar and pollen into them. This is her busiest time. Tired of looking for a place and building a nest, she now exhausts herself by rearing her offspring. It happens that the female dies, but this does not always lead to the death of the nest, since there may be another female of this species whose nest has died for some reason. Then there is a change of owners. Even Fabre, a famous French entomologist, noticed that the nests of some species of bumblebees can be located very close to each other. This allows the females, in which case, to patronize other people's masonry. But it is not without tragedy. Some nests do die. In addition, if a bumblebee of a different species gets into an orphaned nest, she can deal with someone else's offspring, and breed her children on stocks prepared by another female.

Bumblebee offspring usually grow quickly. Mothers carefully feed him and give him water with nectar and even honey, which they dilute with morning dew. When it's time to pupate, each larva wraps itself in a silk net, forming a cocoon. The pupa lies head down in it and waits to hatch. And now the bumblebee does not sit idle: it monitors the condition of the cocoons and begins to build a cell for the next portion of testicles. Under favorable circumstances, the larva emerges from the egg after 4–7 days, 10–20 days pass before pupation, and the adult hatches from the pupa after 10–18 days. And then the first working bumblebees appear in the family. These children of the underground most often spend their entire lives in the nest, helping the queen to warm the next offspring. And only some of the largest of them fly out in search of food. All of them are less skillful foragers than their mother: they bring less nectar and pollen, orient themselves worse, often make mistakes and look for their nest longer. The famous zoologist N. Tinbergen, one of the founders of ethology, observed how young bumblebees at first confused flowering and non-flowering plants, and after visiting the black root, they mistook ragwort and thistle for it and flew to the axils of the leaves, where flowers are located near the black root. Unlucky foragers examined thistle plants for a long time before they found out that their inflorescences are located at the very top. Tinbergen, after applying multi-colored marks on the backs of insects, managed to establish that these hardworking nectar collectors have a good memory, thanks to which they remember the location of plants and, accordingly, regularly fly around the flowers, adhering to a strict sequence. Even when the researcher pulled out a few plants, the bumblebees continued to fly along the old route with surprising persistence and circled for a long time over the place where the flower they knew used to be.

Gradually, the number of foragers in the nest increases. The wax of empty cells is used to build new ones, and young bumblebees put pollen food into silk cocoon shells - nothing is wasted in a bumblebee farm. Over time, a second, and later a third floor of bumblebee combs appears above the first row of cells. In general, family life is in full swing.

Five to six weeks after nest formation, the bumblebee is surrounded by more than a dozen young bumblebees, and the population of the industrious furry community continues to grow. Later offspring are larger than the first. The new bumblebees have their own responsibilities - in a large family, a division of labor begins. It is necessary to provide ventilation and protection of the nest, food delivery, care for the larvae, which are becoming more and more. But if there are so many eggs and larvae that adult bumblebees are not able to heat and feed them, the growth of the family stops. If there is a lot of food and nannies, then some of the largest working individuals may begin to lay unfertilized eggs, from which males hatch.

To lay such, unfertilized, "male" eggs, the uterus that survived the meeting with the male in its time can also. And from her fertilized testicles, females come out - either inferior working individuals, or future founders of colonies. It all depends on the number of bumblebees already in the family.

Young males that have appeared in a bumblebee nest usually leave it in the middle of summer and live separately from the family in anticipation of the appearance of young brides. And finally, young females emerge from cocoons. They spend the first days of their lives in their native community, and then they begin to make first timid, and then more and more confident sorties. As a rule, these honeymoon journeys initially end with a return to the nest. Bumblebees find suitors of their own species by smell. Male bumblebees have a tiny roller gland that serves as their calling card. From it, the rest of the individuals accurately recognize the sex, age and type of bumblebee.

Gradually, the instinct of the house in young females fades away, and the bumblebees leave their family, looking for a suitable place for hibernation. After that, their native home gradually falls into decay, as the rest of the bumblebees abandoned by them cease to store food and protect the nest from those who like to feast on honey and pollen at someone else's expense. The founding bumblebee by this time, as a rule, dies, and young males also die after mating. Their roles in the life of the community are played, and they "leave the scene." I.Khalifman, observing the nest of the stone bumblebee, discovered that by mid-August the insects were very reluctant to store food. They were even too lazy to take honey, specially set by the researcher not far from the entrance to their house. By mid-September, members of the community stopped restoring the collapsing nest, and by October, as if having lost the feeling of hunger, they refused food. By this time, the combs were empty and collapsed, but the bumblebees did not react to this in any way. The sad moment of the death of the family has come.

And the fertilized young bumblebees after wintering on warm spring days will go flying in search of a place for a new friendly community.

Literature

Life of animals. - M .: Education, 1984. T. 3.

Mamaev B.M., Medvedev L.N., Pravdin F.N. Key to insects in the European part of the USSR. – M.: Enlightenment, 1976.

Tinbergen N. Animal behavior. – M.: Mir, 1978.

Fabre P. Insects. – M.: Mir, 1976.

Khalifman I. Bumblebees and termites. - M .: Children's literature, 1972.

belong to the Apidae family, like honey bees, they are active throughout the summer season, although the length of the active period is different for different species of bumblebees, depending on whether they live in high or low latitudes. Unlike other pollinators, bumblebees are able to work in the cold - to extract nectar at temperatures up to 0 ° C. Therefore, bumblebees go far to the north, further than other pollinators - bees and wasps.

Species living far in the north (northern bumblebee Bombus hyperboreus, polar bumblebee B. polaris), where the summer is very short, less than a month, do not have time to organize a real family and live as solitary insects. In the temperate zone, the bumblebee family lives one summer, and in the tropics, some species form perennial families. After hibernation, bumblebees in our latitudes leave their underground shelter in response to rising temperatures.

A bumblebee can take off at a temperature of the pectoral muscles of at least 30 ° C - at a lower temperature, the muscles do not contract fast enough. To raise the temperature of the chest, the bumblebee warms the chest by trembling muscles. Such warming is very effective: at an external temperature of 24 ° C, the bumblebee raises its temperature immediately to 37 ° C in 1 minute, and at 6 ° C, that is, in very cool weather, it reaches “take-off temperature” in 15 minutes. Helps the bumblebee to warm up his "wool" - it reduces heat loss by half. In flight, 90% of all energy is converted into heat, and therefore the temperature of a flying bumblebee is constant: 36 ° C (as in humans) at an ambient temperature of 5 ° C, and 45 ° C - almost fatal - at 35 ° C in air. At higher temperatures, the bumblebee cannot fly due to overheating. Although bumblebees have cooling mechanisms: a flying bumblebee releases a drop of liquid from its mouth, which evaporates and cools its head.

In the nests of bumblebees, the queens incubate (warm) the brood just like chickens. On the basis of the same self-heating, they maintain the temperature in the cell with the developing larva at the level of 25°C at an ambient air temperature of 5°C.

Huge wing muscles are hidden in a powerful prothorax, because of which the bumblebee looks like a sort of hairy ball. The bumblebee develops a speed of 18 km / h. Of course, during such work, the muscles are heated, and since the bumblebee itself is small, and the wing muscles make up a significant part of the body mass, bumblebees become in fact animals with a constant body temperature. Well, not like mammals, of course: a bumblebee is not able to maintain a high body temperature when sitting still, but in flight its temperature is kept at 42 o C.

Like other bees, bumblebees orient themselves by the position of the sun when looking for food, although the mechanism of this orientation is less perfect than that of bees. They are able to see the sun through the clouds, because from the eye they have amazing contrast sensitivity: they are able to highlight a section of the sky that is only 1-2% brighter than others.

Bumblebees are social insects. They have a division of females into larger breeding queens and small sterile workers who perform all the main work in the nest. Usually in large bumblebee nests there are 100-200, sometimes up to 500 individuals.

Bumblebees are of great importance as pollinators. For pollination of vegetables in greenhouses and greenhouses, artificially bred bumblebees are used.

The earthen bumblebee is a member of the bee family. It differs from other species in its rather large size. Its color is represented by a combination of black and red hairs with white patches. The insect has become widespread due to its ability to effectively pollinate plants by shedding pollen from itself during its vibrating flight. This fact did not go unnoticed by scientists and specialists who decided to develop a technology for breeding this type of bumblebee on an industrial scale.

Appearance and dimensions

The largest representative of the bumblebee family is the uterus. It can reach 27 mm in length. Working females grow up to 12-17 mm on average. The largest male individuals grow up to 22 mm, and the average size of their body is 11-22 mm in length.

The color of females and males does not differ. In the photo of an earthen bumblebee, you can see that black hairs with a red bandage predominate on the back. The belly of the insect combines black, red and white bandages. The chest is black, like his body itself, limbs and long antennae.

Spreading

The earthen bumblebee prefers to build nests in the ground, choosing for this purpose former rodent burrows, empty cavities in the soil. Unlike many of its counterparts, settled in the middle latitudes of Eurasia and even in the northern parts of the Far East, the earthen representative of the bee family is a heat-loving insect.

Its main habitats are:

• southern part of Europe;
• Caucasus;
• Western and Central Asia;
• southern regions of the Urals and Western Siberia;
• northwestern part of Africa.

Arthropods often choose forest-steppe zones for living and collecting nectar. In recent years, due to the widespread use of this insect in agriculture, its range has significantly expanded to the east of Russia.

Application in agriculture

The earthen bumblebee began to be bred at the end of the last century. Agricultural industry specialists have developed a technology for the use of these insects in greenhouses for growing vegetables and berries. It copes well with the pollination of such significant plants in the rural industry:

• tomatoes;
• eggplant;
• cross-pollinated cucumbers;
• bell pepper;
• strawberry;
• blueberry;
• cranberries and others.

Insects are bred in greenhouses in special small hives. The queen takes care of the eggs and larvae, while working females actively collect nectar from greenhouse plants. During its flight, the bumblebee creates strong body vibrations, which contributes to the efficient distribution of pollen throughout the beds.

On a note!

The earth bumblebee has a relatively short proboscis, which is not able to get nectar from the deep inflorescences of meadow clover. Using it to pollinate this plant is ineffective.

Families of earthen insects live in greenhouses for about 2 months. During this period, shaggy workers manage to pollinate almost 100% of greenhouse plants. On average, one hive has 400-500 working individuals.

The name of our today's hero, the bumblebee, came about thanks to the sounds that he usually makes during the flight, such buzzing, wheezing, from them the old Russian word “chmel” came from, which eventually transformed into the familiar modern “bumblebee”. By the way, the name of another well-known flyer was formed in a similar way -. But back to bumblebees, scientifically speaking, a bumblebee is an arthropod insect and belongs to a subclass of winged insects, a family of real ones, a genus of bumblebees proper (in Latin Bombus).

Bumblebee - description, structure, characteristics. What does a bumblebee look like?

The bumblebee is a very large and bright insect, and interestingly, the female bumblebee is larger than the male (which, incidentally, is not such a rarity in the world of insects). Typically, the body length of a female bumblebee is from 13 to 28 mm, male - from 7 to 24 mm. But some types of bumblebees, such as the steppe bumblebee, can reach large sizes, even up to 35 mm in length. The weight of a bumblebee, if this is a queen, can reach up to 0.85 g, but working individuals will be lighter - from 0.04 to 0.6 g.

An interesting fact - despite the absolute low weight, bumblebees are quite strong insects and can carry a load equal to their own weight.

The body of a bumblebee is thick and heavy, as for an insect, of course. The wings of a bumblebee are small, transparent and consist of two synchronously moving halves. The speed of a bumblebee's wings is 400 beats per second. And the flight speed of a bumblebee can reach 3-4 meters per second.

The head of a bumblebee in a female is somewhat elongated, while in a male it is triangular in shape, with a noticeable dotted line on the crown and front.

Also, bumblebees have powerful mandibles, which they use when they gnaw through plant fibers, as well as to create honeycombs. They also serve as a bumblebee for protection.

The eyes of a bumblebee are located in a straight line, they are not covered with villi. The antennae of males are longer than those of females.

An important organ of bumblebees is a special proboscis that serves them to collect nectar. The length of the proboscis depends on the type of bumblebee and varies from 7 to 19 mm.

Also in the abdomen of bumblebees there is a sting, but only in females, the male does not have a sting, and in place of the sting there are dark brown genitals. The bumblebee's stinger is smooth, without notches, and invisible when at rest. So when bitten, the female bumblebee pulls the sting back and can sting them repeatedly, like wasps and unlike bees that die after being bitten.

Also, bumblebees have as many as six paws, while the female has a special “basket” for collecting pollen on the outer surface of the hind legs.

The color of the bumblebee is usually striped, black and yellow with white, orange and even red colors. Sometimes there are completely black bumblebees. Scientists believe that the color of the bumblebee was created for a reason, but is associated with the balance and thermoregulation of the insect's body.

What do bumblebees eat

Bumblebees collect pollen and nectar from many plants. But for feeding their larvae, they use not only nectar, but honey of their own manufacture. Bumblebee honey is more liquid than that of bees, lighter and not as sweet and odorous.

Where do bumblebees live in nature

Bumblebees live almost everywhere, on all continents, with the exception of cold Antarctica. They are especially common in temperate latitudes, but there are separate species of bumblebees that live even beyond the Arctic Circle, in the tundra. A frequent guest is a bumblebee in mountainous regions, but closer to the equator, in the tropics, there are not so many bumblebees, for example, only two species of bumblebees live in the Amazon forests. Also at the beginning of the twentieth century, some species of garden bumblebees from Europe were brought to Australia and New Zealand, where they live to this day.

In general, bumblebees are the most cold-resistant members of the bee family. Despite the fact that they do not like the hot tropics very much, all this is due to the peculiarity of their thermoregulation, the fact is that the normal body temperature of a bumblebee can reach 40 degrees Celsius, exceeding the ambient temperature by 20-30 degrees. This increase in temperature is due to the rapid contraction of the bumblebee's chest muscles, the same contraction that is the source of its signature buzz.

bumblebee nest

Bumblebee nests are underground, on the ground and above the ground, we will dwell on them in more detail.

Bumblebee nests underground

Many species of bumblebees build their nests underground, sometimes even settling in the burrows of various rodents. Interestingly, the smell of mice attracts female bumblebees. Also in the mouse mink there is a lot of useful material for warming the bumblebee nest: wool, dry grass, etc.

Bumblebee nests on the ground

Some types of bumblebees, for example, Schrenk's bumblebee, forest, field, build their nests on the ground: in the grass, under plants, even in abandoned bird nests.

Bumblebee nest above the ground

Some types of bumblebees prefer to arrange their nests above the ground: in hollows of trees, birdhouses.

The shape of underground and ground nests can be different and depends on the cavity used by bumblebees. Nests are insulated with dry grass, moss, and strengthened with wax secreted by bumblebees with the help of special abdominal glands. From this wax, bumblebees build a wax dome that prevents the penetration of moisture, it also masks the entrance to the nest to protect against the intrusion of uninvited guests.

The life of bumblebees in nature

Bumblebees, like other insects of the bee family, are social creatures and live in families consisting of:

• big queens.
• smaller female worker bumblebees.
• male bumblebees.

The queen is responsible for the reproduction of offspring, although in her absence working females can also lay eggs. The bumblebee family is not as large as the bee family, but still has 100-200, and sometimes all 500 individuals. The life cycle of a bumblebee family usually lasts from spring to autumn, after which the family breaks up, some of the females go for wintering in order to start a new life cycle in the spring.

In the bumblebee family, everyone has their own specific duties: working bumblebees get food, feed the larvae, equip and protect the nest. At the same time, there is also a division of labor among working bumblebees, so larger representatives fly for food, and smaller ones feed the larvae.

The function of males is simple and clear - the fertilization of females. The uterus of a bumblebee, she is the female founder of the family, lays eggs, feeds the larvae, and generally takes care of the offspring.

How bumblebees breed

Bumblebee reproduction has four stages:

• Egg.
• Larva.
• Pupa.
• Imago (she is an adult).

With the beginning of spring, the queen that has overwintered and fertilized since autumn flies out of its shelter and actively prepares for nesting for several weeks. Having found a suitable place for the nest, the uterus begins construction. In a newly built nest, the queen lays 8-16 elongated eggs.

After 3-6 days, bumblebee larvae appear, they grow rapidly, eating food that the female brings.

After 10-19 days, bumblebee larvae begin to weave a cocoon and pupate. After another 10-18 days, young bumblebees begin to emerge from cocoons, gnawing them. By the way, empty cocoons can later be used to store honey or pollen. After the appearance of the first offspring, 20-30 days after the eggs were laid, the uterus almost does not fly out of the nest. Responsibilities for the extraction of food are taken over by her first children - working individuals who perform all other important functions.

As for born males, 3-5 days after formation into an adult, they leave their parental nests in search of other nests and other queens, with which they will mate in autumn, during the mating season of bumblebees.

How long does a bumblebee live

The life of bumblebees is short and depends on the place of the bumblebee in bumblebee society, where the working bumblebee lives on average for about two weeks. Male bumblebees live for about a month and die soon after mating, the founding female lives the longest, females born in spring die in autumn, and those born in autumn and survived wintering can even live for a whole year - until next autumn.

Which bumblebees do not build nests and do not collect nectar

Types of bumblebees, photos and names

In nature, there are about 300 varieties of bumblebees, of course we will not describe all of them, but we will describe the most interesting representatives of the bumblebee world in our opinion.

He is Bombus pratorum in Latin, lives in almost the entire territory of Europe, as well as in Asia (in Kazakhstan, the Asian part of the Russian Federation, in the taiga, in the Urals, in Siberia). It has a small size: females reach 15-17 mm in length, working individuals 9-14 mm. The head is dark, and behind it is a bright yellow collar. They are interesting in that it is the bumblebees of this species that are the first to fly out in the spring from wintering. They nest on the ground or in bushes.

This bumblebee lives throughout Eurasia, from Ireland in the West to Sakhalin in the East. A very small representative, the body length of the female is 10-22 mm, the workers are 9-15 mm. It is distinguished by a red breast, and on the abdomen it has a black band and a white tip.

It is a very large representative of the bumblebee family, the body length of females reaches 32-35 mm. Has almost that square cheeks. The color of the steppe bumblebee is pale grayish-yellow with a black band between the wings. This bumblebee lives in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Asia Minor, Northern Iran, Transcaucasia. The steppe bumblebee prefers flat, foothill and mountain steppes. Nests are arranged in rodent burrows in the ground. Listed in .

This bumblebee is distinguished by an elongated proboscis, as well as an elongated body and a love of warmth. Distributed in Eurasia, from Great Britain to the Urals. The yellow color of this bumblebee is dimmer than that of other bumblebee species. It has an average size: females reach 19-22 mm, working individuals 11-18 mm. Interestingly, the underground bumblebee was one of four species of bumblebees brought from England to New Zealand for the purpose of pollinating the local clover. Nests, as its name implies, are arranged underground.

It lives in a wide range: Eurasia, almost everywhere, except for the polar regions. Sizes reach 18-22 mm, working individuals 10-15 mm. It has a bright yellow-golden color and an orange back. Builds ground-type nests.

This bumblebee is distinguished by a back with a reddish-black band and a black top of the chest. Females reach 19-23 mm in length, working individuals 11-17 mm. They live in Europe, Asia Minor and northwest Africa. Interestingly, at the end of the 20th century, a method of industrial breeding of this species of bumblebees was developed. The fact is that the earthen bumblebee brings considerable benefits, helping to pollinate various different crops (among them tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, peppers and strawberries).

A rare representative of the bumblebee kingdom, in many countries, including in Ukraine, it is listed in the Red Book. It lives in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor. The body length of this bumblebee is 21-32 mm. It has brown wings and elongated cheeks.

A small representative of the bumblebee kingdom, with a somewhat duller coloration than other bumblebees. He loves warmth, lives in dry meadows of forest-steppes. It builds nests on the surface of the earth from grass and moss, however, sometimes using heated rodent burrows as nests.

Just like the underground bumblebee, it was once brought by the British to New Zealand, where it lives to this day. And besides this, you can meet the garden bumblebee in a wide range from England to Siberia. The uterus has a length of 18-24 mm, working individuals 11-16 mm. The breast of this bumblebee is yellow with a black stripe between the wings. It also has a very long proboscis and nests underground, in old burrows left by rodents.

It lives in the west of Europe, is listed in the Red Book. It is black with two yellow stripes.

Bumblebee bite and its consequences

In general, the bumblebee is a peaceful insect, he himself never attacks, and can only bite in defense. However, the bite of a bumblebee is weak and harmless, this is not a hornet for you. The sting does not remain in the body, the bumblebee takes it back to itself, but the poison released from the sting when bitten can cause an unpleasant sensation: itching, pain, redness, swelling, in the worst case, they can last for several days. But this is in rare cases, since bumblebee venom is not dangerous for most healthy people.

What to do at home if bitten by a bumblebee

Of course, it is best to simply prevent a bumblebee from biting, for this you just need not to try to pick up a bumblebee, but to watch in nature so as not to accidentally sit on a bumblebee with your “soft spot”. But if, nevertheless, a bumblebee bite happened, then the first aid should be as follows:

• The bitten place must be disinfected with an antiseptic, or with soap and water.
• Apply a cold compress to the bitten area.
• Never drink alcohol after being bitten.
• Itching, if any, can be removed with an antihistamine: suprastin, claritin, zirtek, etc.

What are useful bumblebees

As we wrote above, bumblebees are very skilled pollinators of many agricultural plants, sometimes they cross-pollinate five times faster than bees.

Enemies of bumblebees

The big enemies of bumblebees are ants, stealing honey from the female, stealing eggs and larvae of bumblebees. To protect themselves from ants, bumblebees build their nests above the ground, away from anthills.

Another enemies of bumblebees are wasps and canopy flies, which also steal bumblebee honey and eat brood. Some birds, such as the golden bee-eater, eat bumblebees by pecking at them.

• Bumblebee breeding is an important branch of agriculture; bumblebee breeding is actively practiced to increase crop yields.
• Previously, it was believed that, according to the laws of aerodynamics, the bumblebee is simply not able to fly, and its flights, seemingly contrary to the laws of physics, surprised scientists. However, a certain Zheng Jane Wang, a physicist from Cornell University in the USA, was able to explain the flight mechanism of a bumblebee by the principles of aerodynamics.
• In the morning, a curious character appears in the bumblebee's nest, the so-called trumpeter bumblebee, humming strongly. It was previously believed that in this way he raises his relatives to work. But later it turned out that in such a simple way (with the help of the work of the pectoral muscles), this bumblebee simply warms up in the early morning, the coldest hours.

The Secret Life of Shemales Video

And in conclusion, an informative video about bumblebees.