Dark bumblebee

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Dark bumblebee
Bombus terrestris - Tilia cordata - Keila-crop.jpg

Dark bumblebee ( Bombus terrestris )

Systematics
Superfamily : Apoidea
without rank: Bees (Apiformes)
Family : Real bees (Apidae)
Subfamily : Apinae
Genre : Bumblebees ( bombus )
Type : Dark bumblebee
Scientific name
Bombus terrestris
( Linnaeus , 1758)
Dark bumblebee on a lavender flower
Dark bumblebee on a foxglove flower
Dark bumblebee
Dark bumblebee, belly side
pairing
Dark bumblebee returning to the nest with pollen.

The dark bumblebee ( Bombus terrestris ) is one of the most abundant and largest species of bumblebees in Europe . It is a black animal with two yellow bars and a white tip of the abdomen. The mated young queens of the dark bumblebees are among the earliest that can be observed in a calendar year. As a rule, you can be seen as early as February and March as they look for a suitable place to create the bumblebee's nest. The color of the dark bumblebees is so similar to that of the light yellow bumblebee that they can hardly be distinguished in the wild. The chaste cuckoo bumblebee ( Bombus vestalis ) is the parasite of the dark bumblebee .

The dark bumblebee is the most important species in commercial bumblebee farming. It is mainly used in greenhouse cultivation to pollinate tomatoes. Escaped dark bumblebees have established populations in Japan and South America, some of which are very problematic.

Appearance and life cycle

Bombus terrestris is a short-nosed bumblebee, the proboscis of queens, workers and drones (males) are 9-10 or 8-9 and about 8 millimeters long.

The queens are 20 to 28 millimeters long and overwinter in holes in the ground or under dry leaves. Depending on the weather, the queen lays the nest in holes in the ground of moles or mice or under stones in early spring. In it, barrel-like cells are built for pollen , nectar and the brood . As with all bumblebee species examined so far, the queen of the dark bumblebee warms its first brood. It produces heat through metabolism in the thorax and conducts this heat to the abdomen by regulating the blood flow. It presses it tightly to the honeycomb that contains the brood, thus ensuring that the temperature required for the eggs and larvae to develop is reached. This is energy sapping, and it is estimated that a queen of the dark bumblebees would use 600 mg of sugar per day at the temperatures typical of Central Europe to raise their first brood. In order to find enough food, it has to visit up to 6000 flowers during this time. A rich stock of nectar-rich flowers near the nest is therefore essential for successful rearing. It is not uncommon for the nest to be up to 1.5 meters deep, which means that it is well protected from frost. The nest is built in mouse castles and mole passages; occasionally also in cavities near the surface of the earth: in wall holes, under floorboards and in artificial nesting aids such as bumblebee boxes.

The queens of the dark bumblebee release a pheromone that causes the brood to develop into workers. The dark bumblebee has been scientifically well studied; the larvae are very sensitive to this pheromone when they are two to five days old. If it is present, her development into a worker is irreversible; if it is not available, queens will develop if there is sufficient food in the last larval stage. After the workers have hatched, the nest is expanded so that it can accommodate up to 500 bumblebees.

Besides ants, bumblebees are the only socially living insects with noticeable size differences within a country. It is still debatable in the literature whether there is a division of labor among the workers in a bumblebee state, as is the case with honey bees. For the dark bumblebees there are studies that point very strongly in this direction. The bumblebee workers that remain in the nest are noticeably smaller than the bumblebees that look for food. All workers spend the first days of their lives tending to brood and larvae. The smallest of them always seem to stay in the nest, while the bigger they are, the earlier they leave the nest. The most likely explanation for the fact that it is mostly larger workers in a state who collect food is their better ability to regulate their body heat. They can still gather food in less favorable weather conditions than their nest sisters.

In the final stages of a bumblebee nest, some of the workers show a more aggressive behavior towards other workers as well as towards intruders. Some of the workers begin to build their own honeycombs and lay unfertilized and thus male eggs. These are usually eaten by the queen. Conversely, some of the workers eat the eggs freshly laid by the queen. This behavior can only be observed in the first 24 hours after oviposition. Presumably, only within this time window are bumblebees able to distinguish between their eggs and those laid by other bumblebees in their state. In addition to the dark bumblebee, this behavior has also been described for light yellow bumblebees , stone bumblebees and Bombus fervidus and is possibly a behavior that also occurs in other bumblebee species.

Natural range

All over Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor, bumblebees can be found in forests, grassy meadow slopes, gardens and fields from the lowlands to the mountains.

The dark bumblebee is an introduced insect in New Zealand, Japan and South America. While its occurrence in Japan and South America is a result of its commercial use in greenhouse cultivation, the dark bumblebee was introduced to New Zealand as early as the 19th century. Farmers there struggled with the problem that the red clover applied had little or no seed, so they were forced to keep importing seeds from Great Britain. A hobby entomologist finally noticed that there were no bumblebees in New Zealand and that this was the reason for the non-seeding red clover. The first attempts to introduce bumblebees failed because it was not possible to transport the bumblebees alive across the equator by ship. This only succeeded in 1885: 282 hibernating young queens had been collected in Great Britain and placed in the cold store of the SS Tongariro , one of the first steamers with such a facility, in December 1884 . When the ship docked in Christchurch on January 8, 1885 , 48 of the bumblebee queens were still alive. The SS Aorangi , a sister ship of the SS Tongariro , brought another 49 living bumblebee queens to New Zealand a month later. The released bumblebee queens immediately reproduced very successfully in New Zealand. Bumblebees were sighted 100 miles south of Christchurch as early as 1886, and by 1892 bumblebees were so common that beekeepers were concerned about food competition from their bees.

The dark bumblebee as a pollinator insect in vegetable growing

Start of use

In 1985, the Belgian veterinarian and hobby entomologist Roland de Jonghe released a nest of dark bumblebees in a greenhouse where tomatoes were growing, and discovered that they were very effective at pollinating the plants. Tomatoes, like peppers that are also grown under glass, are so-called vibration pollinators. In order to achieve a fruit set here, labor-intensive manual pollination with electrical pollinators was necessary in the greenhouse cultivation of tomatoes until the 1980s. Labor costs of around € 10,000 per hectare were incurred. As early as 1912, the entomologist Frederick Sladen had succeeded in keeping bumblebee queens in captivity in such a way that they began to build nests, and later entomologists had repeatedly made similar attempts for scientific reasons. In the 1970s, experience with artificial breeding and keeping bumblebees in captivity was so advanced that it was possible to go through a complete annual cycle for individual bumblebee species . The dark bumblebee in particular seemed to be particularly easy to raise under artificial conditions. However, it was not until de Jonghe realized the possible commercial importance of using bumblebees as a pollinator insect. In a little more than a decade, this realization changed the way tomatoes are grown under glass. Compared to the costs of the high manual effort involved in pollination, the costs of the labor-intensive breeding of bumblebees were low. De Jonghe also found that plants pollinated by bumblebees were more productive.

In 1987 De Jonghe founded Biobest , which is still the largest commercial breeder of bumblebees to this day. Due to the success, similar companies were founded within a short time, especially in the Netherlands. In 1990, artificially reared bumblebees were used for the first time in Canada, followed a year later by the USA and Israel and a little later by Japan and Morocco. By the turn of the millennium, it had become the global standard to rely on the pollination of bumblebees when growing tomatoes. Exceptions are countries like Australia, where bumblebees do not occur naturally and where the legislation strictly prohibits the import of non-native species.

Effects

In the pollination practice with bumblebees, complete bumblebees' nests are exposed in the greenhouses. The European companies that are active in artificial bumblebee breeding send more than a million bumblebee nests worldwide every year. One of the positive side effects of using bumblebees in agricultural vegetable cultivation is that they are accompanied by a significantly reduced use of insecticides and pesticides, as the use of these agents also endangers pollinators. One of the disadvantages is that the predominantly used dark bumblebees, which are now artificially grown, are descended from wild bumblebees collected in Turkey. When using bumblebees in greenhouses, it is almost inevitable that bumblebees will escape from greenhouses. Some of these escaped bumblebees are very likely to mate with wild bumblebees and thus contribute to falsifying the fauna. In the UK, vegetable growers are therefore encouraged to either destroy these imported nests when they are no longer in use, by burning them, or to kill the bumblebees by placing the nests in the freezer. In the experience of the British entomologist Dave Goulson , these recommendations are only implemented by a few vegetable farmers. Few growers have large enough freezers to do this. Burning the nests, which are made of cardboard and polystyrene , generates annoying exhaust gases. In Japan, it is now a legal requirement that greenhouses that use bumblebees' nests have double doors and meshed hatches to prevent bumblebees from escaping. In the meantime, however, there are feral dark bumblebees in Japan that go back to escaped bumblebees .

Invasive species in South America

Experience with imported dark bumblebees in South America shows that this global practice can have negative effects. Here they are now considered an extremely invasive species with negative effects on the local fauna: in 1998, industrially bred colonies were tested as pollinators in Chilean greenhouses with official approval . Some young queens escaped the farms and have since spread invasively over the South American land masses at a speed of around 200 km per year. On their way, for example, the equally large native bumblebee species Bombus dahlbomii dies out regionally a few years after the arrival of the dark bumblebee. With the industrially bred earth bumblebees, a unicellular parasite Crithidia bombi also came to the continent. It is believed that the combination of bumblebee and parasite is rapidly displacing the native bumblebee species there.

Occurrence in Tasmania

In Tasmania Dark Erdhummeln were observed for the first time in 1992 - they were in gardens of the university town of Hobart seen the most densely populated region of the island, for the first time. The government never allowed this species of bumblebee to be brought into Tasmania. Of course, the dark bumblebee as a species from the northern hemisphere does not occur in this region of the world. The closest occurrences are in New Zealand, 1,500 miles away, where this species was introduced in the 19th century. The entomologist Dave Goulson believes it is impossible that the bumblebees managed to cross the stormy and cold Tasmanian Sea against the prevailing wind direction on their own. Mated young queens may have come aboard a ship to Tasmania by chance or introduced into potting soil during hibernation. Goulson thinks this is unlikely. He thinks it is no coincidence that these bumblebees appeared in Tasmania at a time when vegetable growers around the world were beginning to use bumblebees in greenhouses. In Australia, as in Tasmania, due to the fragile ecosystem and the numerous bad experiences one has had with introduced animal species, the introduction of non-native animal species is strictly prohibited. Growers in Australia are therefore forced to continue to pollinate the plants manually, which is labor-intensive.

The easily determinable timing of the first appearance of dark bumblebees provided the rare opportunity to determine the impact of the introduction of bumblebees into this ecosystem. As early as 1999 it could be shown that the bumblebees had spread from Hobart 60 miles north and south and 50 miles to the west. According to Goulson's finding, bumblebees were found wherever there were gardens or the vegetation had high levels of weeds introduced from Europe and North America. It has now been genetically proven that all bumblebees found in Tasmania can be traced back to a few individuals. In 2010, bumblebees were found all over Tasmania. In 1999, a displacement competition between native pollinator insects and the dark bumblebee could already be proven. The negative effects of the introduction of the bumblebees could be seen most clearly in the reproduction rate of tree lupins ( Lupinus arboreus ). While the tree lupine is one of the invasive weeds in New Zealand and Chile, this plant has so far remained inconspicuous in Tasmania, although Tasmania has a similar climate to New Zealand . Goulson was able to show that bumblebees changed this. The tree lupins in Tasmania lacked suitable pollinators - this changed with bumblebees. Tree lupins have spread aggressively along the coastal region.

literature

  • Heiko Bellmann: Bees, wasps, ants - the hymenoptera of Central Europe . Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-440-06932-X .
  • Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, ISBN 9780224096898 .
  • Dave Goulson: Bumblebees: Behavior and Ecology . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. ISBN 019-852606-7 .
  • Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Ed.): Red List of Endangered Animals in Germany . Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-89624-110-9 .
  • Michael Chinery: Parey's Book of Insects . Translated from the English by Irmgard Jung. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-440-09969-5 .
  • Jiří Zahradník: Hymenoptera . Translated from the Czech by Jürgen Ostmeyer. Artia Publishing House, Prague 1985.

Web links

Commons : Dark Earth Bumblebee  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dave Goulson: Bumblebees: Behavior and Ecology . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. ISBN 019-852606-7 . P. 4
  2. ↑ Dark earth bumblebee - Bombus terrestris; on http://www.wildbienen.de; Retrieved May 28, 2012
  3. ↑ Dave Goulson: Bumblebees: Behavior and Ecology . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. ISBN 019-852606-7 . P. 16
  4. ↑ Dave Goulson: Bumblebees: Behavior and Ecology . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. ISBN 019-852606-7 . P. 21
  5. ↑ Dave Goulson: Bumblebees: Behavior and Ecology . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. ISBN 019-852606-7 . P. 25
  6. ↑ Dave Goulson: Bumblebees: Behavior and Ecology . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. ISBN 019-852606-7 . P. 29
  7. ↑ Dave Goulson: Bumblebees: Behavior and Ecology . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. ISBN 019-852606-7 . P. 31 and p. 32
  8. ^ Goulson: A Sting in the Tale , 2013, item 278
  9. ^ Goulson: A Sting in the Tale , 2013, item 289
  10. ^ Goulson: A Sting in the Tale , 2013, item 295
  11. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, ISBN 9780224096898 , heading 2602.
  12. ↑ Article in the world for the use of insects accessed on April 3, 2014
  13. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, ISBN 9780224096898 , heading 2607.
  14. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, ISBN 9780224096898 , item 2596.
  15. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 2613.
  16. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 2613.
  17. ↑ Webpage of the company Biobest with an example of a bumblebee nest used in tomato cultivation ( memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 3, 2014  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.biobest.be
  18. ^ Dave Goulson : A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 2619.
  19. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 2619.
  20. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 2636.
  21. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 2642.
  22. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 2642.
  23. ^ Regula Schmid-Hempel, et al .: The invasion of southern South America by imported bumblebees and associated parasites . (Summary: HTML, article: PDF, language: English) In: Journal of Animal Ecology . November 21, 2013. ISSN  1365-2656 . doi : 10.1111 / 1365-2656.12185 . Retrieved on December 17, 2013.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / onlinelibrary.wiley.com  
  24. ↑ TD Semmens, E. Turner, R. Buttermore: Bombus terrestris (L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) now established in Tasmania. , in: J. Aust. Ent. Soc. (1993) 32: 346, (English)
  25. ^ Geoff R. Allen, Owen D. Seeman, Paul Schmid-Hempel, Roger E. Buttermore: Low parasite loads accompany the invading population of the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris in Tasmania . In: Insectes Sociaux . tape 54 , no. 1 . Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2007, p. 56–63 , doi : 10.1007 / s00040-007-0908-y (English, psu.edu [PDF; 138 kB ; accessed on June 20, 2016]). , Page: 56
  26. ↑ Andrew B. Hingston: Extent of invasion of Tasmanian native vegetation by the exotic bumblebee Bombus terrestris (Apoidea: Apidae). , in: Austral Ecology (2002) 27, 162-172. PDF online (459 kB) ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed 2016-09-28. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.uvm.edu
  27. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 1235.
  28. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 1248.
  29. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 1248.
  30. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 1477.
  31. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 1448.
  32. ↑ Andrew B. Hingston, PB McQuillan: Displacement of Tasmanian native megachilid bees by the recently introduced bumblebee Bombus terrestris (Linnaeus, 1758) (Hymenoptera: Apidae). , in: Aust. J. Zool. (1999) 47, 59-65, (English).
  33. ^ Dave Goulson: A sting in the tale. Random House, London 2013, position 1373.