Male bumblebees noted on flowers

Text Meelis Uustal
Photo Tiit Jürisson
Translation: Liis
Male white-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum)
 
As midsummer arrives male bumblebees start to be hatched in the bumblebee nests. They do not take part in the nest tasks because their sole purpose is to find a young female bumblebee to mate with. The searches use up energy which they try to restore by tanking nectar on flowers. Thus male bumblebees behave similarly to cuckoo bumblebeeson flowers  – act without hurry and linger long on the flower. They don’t need to collect nectar or pollen for the nest. But it gives us a chance to study them closer and for those who are interested, also to identify them.
 
A characteristic of many male bumblebees is a yellow or brownish tuft of hairs on the head. Certainly the male bumblebee does not have pollen baskets or pollen clumps to be seen on the hind legs – they are signs of workers or a female bumblebee. The hind legs of males are thinner, the area of pollen baskets covered with short hairs. This is actually best visible in a photo, with a naked eye it is relatively complicated to see, however closer  you put your nose. If you happen to come too close he raises one leg as a threat. But that is all – male bumblebees have no sting. The rear body looks elongated rather than round, because males have one abdomen segment more. Antennae too are longer – 13 segments instead of 12.
 
Males and females of many proper and cuckoo bumblebees have differently coloured furs, which in the case of some species makes identification easier, in other cases however more difficult. Certainly the identification pages for bumblebees help:  LINK
 
 
Join the observations of bumblebees and help to gain new knowledge about the spread of bumblebees in Estonia!
 
Guide to observing bumblebees and observation questionnaire: LINK
 
Web questionnaire for bumblebees: LINK
 

Join the „Meie kimalased – Our bumblebees“ group on Facebook: LINK



 

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