Drone Bumblebees

Male bumblebees, also know as drones as pretty transient. They don’t hang about for long. Once they leave their nest they fly around for a few weeks looking for females to mate with and then, job done, they just die off. It is the new females queens that will hibernate and start a new colony the following spring.

Heath Bumblebee (Bombus jonellus)

Heath Bumblebee (Bombus jonellus)

Heath Bumblebee (Bombus jonellus)

This year, drones of both Early Bumblebees and Heath Bumblebees are appearing earlier than expected here in Ireland. No one is quite sure why yet. It may be due to the strange weather we are experiencing, or it could be that these species are having two generations a year.

Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)

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Many drone bees can be distinguished by the yellow hairs on their faces. The drone will often fly further than the females. So while this is the second year I have seen Heath bumble drones in my garden, I have yet to see a female Heath.

Heath Bumblebee (Bombus jonellus)

And I near forgot to add solstice greetings!!

Cuckoo bumblebees

Cuckoo bumblebees, as their name suggests, take over the nests of ‘true’ bumblebees. The Cuckoo queen enter their host nest, and kill the existing queen. The remaining workers then rear the cuckoo’s young. The cuckoo bumbles, of which there are six species in Ireland, can be difficult enough to distinguish from true bumbles. However one distinguishing feature is the lack of a pollen basket on the back leg of the bee.

The photo below is of a forest cuckoo bumblebee.  They appear to be having a good year with sightings in Mayo and Clare in the last couple of weeks

They are probably one of the easier species to identify with their large white tails and their single yellow band.

 

Forest Cuckoo bumblebee Bombus sylvestris

Garden Bumblebee on runner bean

Note: no pollen basket on bee on left but Garden bumblebee on right (a true bumblebee) the pollen basket is obvious.

 

Wildlife Wednesday

Moorehall is one of our favourite places to go for a walk, here in County Mayo. Here are some of yesterday’s little wildlife highlights. The Holly Blue butterfly is small and delicate. The inside wings are the blue of an evening sky in summer, so seeing them flying along is like watching fragments of sky flutter about.

Dandelions

Holly Blue

Bumble

Arum lily