The final generation of eggs, which comes around late summer, produces queens for next season and males for them to mate with. The eggs hatch and grow into worker bees, with the ones born earlier in the season caring for the younger ones.Ĭolonies can be as small as 50 individuals-much smaller than honeybee colonies, which can number in the tens of thousands. The queen lays and incubates several broods of eggs over the course of spring and summer, which she keeps warm by generating heat with her wings. Queens emerge from hibernation underground in the spring and find a nest site, which can often be an old rodent burrow. They can fly in cooler temperatures than other bees, which makes them well suited to pollinating mountain habitats, coastal plains, and even Arctic tundra. They excel at spreading pollen and fertilizing many types of wild plants, as well as important agricultural crops like tomatoes, blueberries, and squash. Unlike honeybees, they don’t make honey, as they don’t need to store food for winter-they typically live a year, at most.īumblebees are among the most important pollinators. ![]() ![]() Bumblebees are distinctive for their fuzzy, pile-covered bodies and bold colors, which helps them ward off predators. There are more than 250 species of bumblebees, belonging to the genus Bombus (honeybees belong to the genus Apis.) The largest bumblebee species, Bombus dahlbomii, can grow to be an inch and a half in length. Bumblebees are furry, round insects that live mostly in temperate climates in the Northern Hemisphere.
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