Wood bumblebee
| Wood bumblebee | ||||||||||||
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Wood bumblebee ( Bombus sylvarum ) on the closed flower of the Charles Scepter |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Bombus sylvarum | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1761) |
The wood bumblebee ( Bombus sylvarum ) is a state-forming insect species belonging to the bumblebee genus . It is one of 48 species of bumblebee found in Europe.
Occurrence
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The wood bumblebee is widespread throughout Europe as far as southern Fennoscandinavia , it occurs throughout Germany, but is less common in the north. The name "forest bumblebee" is misleading in that it does not currently live in the forest. It inhabits forest edges, park-like terrain, including gardens, (orchard) meadows, ditches and embankments. It prefers the flatlands, but occurs in mountains up to heights of 1400 m.
Appearance
Forest bumblebees show pastel-colored yellow, brown and orange tones, but have less strong color contrasts than other bumblebee species. On the dark thorax they have two brownish-yellowish cross bars near the head and behind, and have a light yellowish-gray underside of the thorax . The abdomen is black in the front half and hairy orange in the rear half and wears white to light gray hair bands on the segment rear edges. The head is long. Workers are 10–15 mm long , drones 12–14 mm and the queen 16–18 mm long. The wingspan is 29–32 mm for the queen, 21–27 mm for the worker and 23–26 mm for the drone. The length of the trunk is 12-14 mm for the queen, 10-12 mm for the worker and 9-11 mm for the drone. Queen and workers show a seemingly nervous flight. The queen and worker have a noticeably high and powerful humming sound.
food
The diet of the forest bumblebees consists of the nectar and pollen of various plants.
Way of life
The lifespan of a wood bumblebee colony is less than a year; only the mated queen winters. The queen's flight time begins at the beginning of April; Young wood bumblebees fly from the end of July and drones from mid-July. The flight time lasts until the end of October. Wood bumblebees' nests are often found underground in mouse nests, but also above ground in the herb layer, under tufts of grass, in squirrel cobs. A wood bumblebee colony consists of around 80 to 150 animals and a queen.
literature
- Eberhard von Hagen: Bumblebees - determine, settle, multiply, protect . Neumann - Neudamm, 1988, ISBN 3-7888-0546-3
Web links
- Forest bumblebees at www.wildbienen.de
- Forest bumblebees at www.insektenbox.de
- Waldhummel at www.tierdoku.com
Two-colored snail-shell bee (2013) | Big woolly bee (2014) | Bryony Sand Bee (2015) | Waldhummel (2016) | Knautien-Sandbiene (2017) | Yellow-bonded furrow bee (2018) | Mustard blue shimmering sand bee (2019) | European thighbee (2020)