Bumble Bee Research Paper

The Rusty Patches Bumble Bee, Bombus affinis, is one of the most important bumble bee species in the United States because of its unique pollinating habits. The colonies are composed of a single queen bee, which is the largest, and many female workers. Males are only kept for mating purposes, and they have the same rust colored spots across their backs that the worker bees have. The queen is the only one without the patches (“Fact Sheet,” 2017). The queen is easy to pick out from the rest of the colony, but is hard to find because they live in underground nests filled with nectar to eat. The specie’s special pollinating schedule is the longest out of all bumble bee species’ schedules. They pollinate various flowering plants and important crops …show more content…
Male bumble bees are only kept around to fertilize the queen bumble bee and die when winter comes. Worker bees also die at the change of season; only the queen survives through the winter, as it hibernates underground. In the spring, the queen lays eggs that have been fertilized by the sperm the bee stored over winter from the fall mating season. The original queen dies, and the new queens start their own colonies from the newly hatched worker bees (“Fact Sheet,” 2017). The population is very fragile because the colonies all depend on the health of the queen bee through the winter and the queen’s ability to reproduce in the spring. When the populations get too small and isolated, inbreeding causes male bees to become sterile, unable to fertilize the queen. Natural predators also affect the health of the colonies. Bears, badgers, and weasels raid the underground nests looking for the nectar that the bees collect. Spiders are also an issue for the bees because they can’t see the spider webs and get trapped in the fibers (Smith, n.d.). When the predator populations grow too large, the bumble bees’ nests are destroyed at faster rates than they are built. Smaller populations then lead to more inbreeding and sterile

Show More