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Cuckoo bumblebees are a few species of bees which live parasitically in the colonies of other bumblebees and have lost the ability to collect pollen (Figure 45).. Before finding and invading a host colony, a Psithyrus female (there is no caste system in these species) will feed directly from flowers. Once she has infiltrated a host colony, the Psithyrus female will kill or subdue the queen of that colony and forcibly (using pheromones and/or physical attacks) "enslave" the workers of that colony to feed her and her young. This female also has a number of adaptations, such as larger mandibles and a larger venom sac that increase her chances of taking over a nest.
Cuckoo Bumblebee. Image Courtesy of Alvesgaspar.
Queen and worker bumblebees can sting, but unlike a honey bees, a bumblebee's stinger lacks barbs, so they can sting more than once. Bumblebee species are normally non-aggressive, but will sting in defense of their nest, or if harmed. Female cuckoo bumblebees will aggressively attack host colony members, and sting the host queen, but will ignore other animals (including humans) unless disturbed. Based on my numerous encounters the sting of the bumble bees is considerably more painful than that of a honey bee.
Bumblebees are important pollinators of both crops and wildflowers. Bumblebees are increasingly cultured for agricultural use as pollinators because they can pollinate plant species that other pollinators cannot by using a technique known as buzz pollination. For example, bumblebee colonies are often emplaced in greenhouse tomato production, because the frequency of buzzing that a bumblebee exhibits effectively releases tomato pollen which is normally wind pollinated and therefore difficult to release from the anther.
Bumblebees are in danger in many developed countries due to habitat destruction and collateral pesticide damage. In Britain, until relatively recently, 19 species of native true bumblebee were recognized along with six species of cuckoo bumblebees. Of these, three have become extinct, eight are in serious decline, and only six remain widespread. Similar declines in bumblebees have been reported in Ireland, with 4 species being designated Endangered, another two species considered Vulnerable to extinction. A decline in bumblebee numbers could cause large-scale sweeping changes to the countryside, leading to inadequate pollination of certain plants. The world's first bumblebee sanctuary was established at Vane Farm in the Loch Leven National Nature Reserve in Scotland in 2008.
One common, yet incorrect, assumption is that the buzzing sound of bees is caused by the beating of their wings. The sound is actually the result of the bee vibrating its flight muscles, and this can be achieved while the muscles are decoupled from the wings—a feature known in bees but not other insects. This is especially pronounced in bumblebees, as they must warm up their bodies considerably to get airborne at low ambient temperatures. Bumblebees have been known to reach an internal thoracic temperature of 30 °C (86 °F) using this method.
The orchestral interlude "Flight of the Bumblebee" was composed by Rimsky Korsakov to represent the turning of Prince Guidon to visit his father, Tsar Saltan, in the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, however the music is considered to more accurately reflect the flight of a bluebottle fly rather than a bumblebee.
The music went on to inspire Walt Disney to have a bumblebee featured in his musical Fantasia and also sound as if it was flying in all parts of the theatre - the unsuccessful experimentation led to the music being excluded from the film and the eventual invention of surround sound.
Salvador Dali was inspired by the sound of a bumblebee to create one of his paintings Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumble bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Awakening.
Orchid Bees. Euglossine bees, also called orchid bees, are the only group of corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess eusocial behavior. Most of the species are solitary, though a few are communal, or exh