Bumble bees (Bombus Latr.) are primarily a cold temperate group, but a few species live in the hot, moist conditions of tropical rainforest. We describe the external and internal characteristics of a Bombus pullatus Franklin nest from the tropical lowlands of Costa Rica. The nest was a large, conical mound constructed of cut vegetation on the forest floor, similar to nests of the Amazonian bumb...

The stinging hymenopteran velvet ants (Mutillidae) and bumble bees (Apidae: Bombus spp.) have both undergone extensive diversification in aposematic color patterns, including yellow-red hues and contrasting dark-light body coloration, as a result of Müllerian mimicry. Understanding the genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying shifts in these mimetic colors requires characterization of th...

We have found that foraging bumblebees (Bombus hortorum, B. pascuorum, B. pratorum and B. terrestris) not only avoid ̄owers of Symphytum ocinale that have recently been visited by conspeci®cs but also those that have been recently visited by heterospeci®cs. We propose that the decision whether to reject or accept a ̄ower is in ̄uenced by a chemical odour that is left on the corolla by a forager...

The bumblebee Bombus impatiens is increasingly used as a model in comparative studies of colour vision, or in behavioural studies relying on perceptual discrimination of colour. However, full spectral sensitivity data on the photoreceptor inputs underlying colour vision are not available for B. impatiens. Since most known bee species are trichromatic, with photoreceptor spectral sensitivity pea...

In southern England, Linaria vulgaris (common yellow toadflax) suffers from high rates of nectar robbery by bumblebees. In a wild population of L. vulgaris we found that 96 % of open flowers were robbed. Five species of bumblebee were observed foraging on these flowers, although short-tongued species (Bombus lapidarius, B. lucorum and B. terrestris) robbed nectar whilst longer-tongued ones beha...

Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 81(3): 419-427 (1988) ABSTRACT The anthophorid bee, Hahropoda (=Emphoropsis [R. W. Brooks, personal communication]) laboriosa (F.), is a locally abundant, vernal, univoltine species. It flies from February through April in Georgia and Alabama. In these states, females are oligolectic on Vaccinium spp., particularly V. ashei Reade and V. corymbosum L., with Gelsemium sempe...

Habitat fragmentation may severely affect survival of social insect populations as the number of nests per population, not the number of individuals, represents population size, hence they may be particularly prone to loss of genetic diversity. Erosion of genetic diversity may be particularly significant among social Hymenoptera such as bumblebees (Bombus spp.), as this group may be susceptible...