Off-white bumblebee
| Off-white bumblebee | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Bombus mucidus | ||||||||||||
| Gerstäcker , 1869 |
The gray-white bumblebee ( Bombus mucidus ) is a species from the genus of the bumblebee ( Bombus ).
Habitat and Distribution
The gray-white bumblebee is widespread in Europe in the Pyrenees , Alps , Apennines and Carpathians on slopes between 1200 and 2300 m altitude. A colony comprises around 60–80 animals. She is one of the pocket makers . The active flying season is from mid-May to the end of October. Only one generation is produced per year (univoltin). The gray-and-white bumblebee uses abandoned mouse nests as a nesting place, so it can be assigned to the nest-makers.
Mark
The queens are 18 to 20 mm long, the workers 12 to 16 mm and the drones 13 to 14 mm. At first glance it resembles the mountain bumblebee and the sand bumblebee due to its gray-white color . The black thorax is framed in front and behind by a narrow whitish band. The tergites wear yellowish-orange fur that appears thin and shaggy. The queen produces a medium-pitched buzzing sound similar to that of the bumblebee . The gray and white bumblebee has a long trunk.
food
Like all bumblebees, the gray-white bumblebee feeds on nectar and its larvae on pollen. Her main ornamental plants include alpine zest , anthelium , silver thistle and foxglove .
Danger
In Germany, the gray-white bumblebee is classified as “not endangered ” on the Red List of Threatened Species .
literature
- Eberhard von Hagen: Bumblebees: determine, settle, multiply, protect . Natur-Verlag, Augsburg 1990, ISBN 3-89440-546-5 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Paul Westrich, Ulrich Frommer, Klaus Mandery, Helmut Riemann, Haike Ruhnke, Christoph Saure & Johannes Voith: Red List of Bees in Germany . In: Paul Westrich (Ed.): Eucera . tape 1 , no. 3 . Eucera, Kusterdingen 2008, p. 33-37 .