Field cuckoo bumblebee
| Field cuckoo bumblebee | ||||||||||||
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Light form of Bombus campestris |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Bombus campestris | ||||||||||||
| ( Tank , 1801) |
The field cuckoo bumblebee ( Bombus ( Psithyrus ) campestris ) is a kind in the subgenus Kuckuckshummeln ( Psithyrus ) of the kind of the bumblebees ( Bombus ).
features
The animals grow to be 15 to 20 millimeters long and are difficult to distinguish from other similar cuckoo bumblebees in the field. On the thorax they have an elliptical black center, which is bordered by two broad yellowish white cross bars on the side. The first to third tergite are black, the fourth to sixth are whitish yellow. Compared to other cuckoo bumblebees, the species bears less resemblance to its hosts.
Occurrence
The species is distributed from Western Europe to Manchuria . In Europe it occurs in the north to Norway, about 63 ° north latitude. It occurs in Central Europe, but not often.
Way of life
The animals occur in one generation per year. The females overwinter and only fly late in spring. New generation females fly from mid-July, males from early to mid-July. In the spring, the females especially visit common dandelions as a source of nectar . The males can be found in the summer usually thistles ( Cirsium ), carduus ( Carduus ), thistle ( Onopordum ), knapweed ( Centaurea ) and Marsh ( Scabiosa ).
They parasitize in Central Europe, especially the common carder bee ( Bombus pascuorum ), but also the brown-banded carder bee ( Bombus humilis ), fruit Hummel ( Bombus pomorum ), early bumblebee ( Bombus pratorum ) and the grass Hummel ( Bombus ruderarius ).
supporting documents
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Andreas Müller, Albert Krebs, Félix Amiet: Bees. Central European species, way of life, observation . Naturbuch Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-89440-241-5 , p. 338 .
- ^ "Feld-Kuckuckshummel" · Bombus campestris . H.-J. Martin & Partner: www.wildbienen.de, accessed on May 2, 2015 .
- ↑ a b c d Paul Westrich : The wild bees of Baden-Württemberg. Special Part: The Genera and Species . Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8001-3307-5 , p. 848 .
literature
- Andreas Müller, Albert Krebs, Félix Amiet: Bees. Central European species, way of life, observation . Naturbuch Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-89440-241-5 .
- Paul Westrich : The wild bees of Baden-Württemberg. Special Part: The Genera and Species . Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-8001-3307-5 .
Web links
- Bombus campestris at Fauna Europaea. Retrieved December 19, 2014