Sand bumblebee
| Sand bumblebee | ||||||||||||
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Sand bumblebee ( Bombus veteranus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Bombus veteranus | ||||||||||||
| ( Fabricius , 1793) |
The sand bumblebee ( Bombus veteranus ) is a type of bumblebee ( Bombus ).
Habitat and Distribution
The sand bumblebee is a rare species that can be found all over Europe up to a height of 1000 m, except on the Iberian Peninsula , Ireland and Great Britain. In Central Europe it mostly lives near the coast, in Germany mainly in the north. According to Eberhard von Hagen, she can still be found regularly in Austria and Switzerland . As a habitat, the sand bumblebee prefers open terrain as well as embankments, roadsides, gardens and orchards, where it usually nests above ground. As a nesting place, the overwintered queens build a nest ball from mid-April, which they form from parts of plants (moss, grass). If you cannot find a suitable place above ground, you can also use abandoned mouse nests. So it can be seen as a nest builder and nest maker. The first female workers fly from the beginning of May, drones and the young queens from the end of July. A people varies between 60 and 130 individuals.
Mark
The queens measure 16 to 19 mm in length, the workers 10 to 16 mm and the drones 12 to 15 mm. The queen produces a high-pitched humming sound similar to that of the wood bumblebee . It is also difficult to distinguish optically from the wood bumblebee. It is white-gray in color, the dark abdomen is covered with white horizontal stripes. The 4th and 6th tergites are gray-white, whereas forest bumblebees are orange. Like most pocket makers, sand bumblebees have a long trunk.
food
Like all bumblebees, it feeds on nectar and pollen. Her main ornamental plants include: clover , thistles , tufts and the foxglove .
Danger
The sand bumblebee is endangered in Germany and is therefore on the Red List of Endangered Species .
literature
Eberhard von Hagen: Bumblebees: determine, settle, multiply, protect . Natur-Verl., Augsburg 1990. ISBN 3-89440-546-5
Web links
swell
Eberhard von Hagen: Hummeln: determine, settle, multiply, protect p. 224
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 .