(An electronic reprint of Entomology Notes #10, copyright Michigan
Entomological Society)
Flight of the Bumblebee
Entomology Note No. 10
Everyone, except the bumblebee itself, knows that a bumblebee
can't fly. Its body is too big for such small wings and furthermore
it isn't particularly streamlined like the wasp. Don't take someone
else's word for it, try flying bumblebees at home. Get a strand
of porch screen or other fine wire for tying the bee. If you do
this in late fall there is very little chance that you won't interfere
with the bumble bee population. The new queens, which are the
only ones which will survive the winter, are hibernating. The
males and workers stlll alive will die by winter.
If you do not want to take a chance on getting stung, tie up
a male instead of a worker or queen because males do not sting.
If you are very good at identifying the common kinds of bees that
occur, you can just grab a male off goldenrod and put it in your
handkerchief until you get home. Put the handkerchief with the
bee in an empty jelly jar and put the jar in the refrigerator
for a half hour. While it's in there, take your single strand
of wire and tie a slip knot in it. You might want to make 2-3
of these loops in case one slips off the bee and you can't get
it opened up fast.
After you take the bee out of the refrigerator, you have about
5 minutes to get it tied before the bee warms up enough to fly
away. If it does get active, put it back in the refrigerator for
another 10 minutes. Place your finger on the top of the bee. Slip
the loop around the abdomen of the bee and pull it securely. Be
careful to keep the wings out of your loop and keep the bee top-side
up. Finally, secure the other end of your wire in a hole made
by a needle in a piece of wood. You are now ready for experiments
in the flight of the bumblebee. By the way, you can use other
flying insects such as flies this same way. Here are some questions
you might try to answer: How fast can your bee go? How many seconds
does it take to make a circle? What is the distance once around
your course? Does it tuck its legs in when it flies? How are the
antennae held-- up, down, straight out? Does it buzz when it is
not fIying? How far can it go? How many revo lutions can it make?
If you hold a paper or card under its feet (supporting it), then
take away the paper, what happens? What happens if you blow gently
in its face? Is your bee faster or slower than other bees? What
would you guess the reasons might be for a faster or slower bee?
Twist your wire around so the bee is upside down. What is the
reaction by the bee? Can it fly? How are the antennae held? What
do the legs do? Provide a bottle cap with sugar-water for the
bee. Will a bee fly longer or faster when you feed it or when
you don't? Can you think of a way to estimate how fast the wings
are beating? Others have used sound, wing marks on a rapidly rotating
drum or a stroboscope. How would you use sound to guess wing speed?
Do mosquitoes make a higher or lower sound than bumblebees? Would
you guess that the wings beat faster if you were able to add weights
to the bee? Would they beat slower or faster if you clipped off
the wing tips? What species of bum blebee do you have?
Even experts have difficulty with the small fraction of bumblebees
which have atypical color patterns. If you encounter one of the
oddities, give it to your county extension agent to for ward to
a university. Fortunately, most local bees have more or less regular
color patterns. Like people, each bee will be slightly different
(see chart of bee species).
Male bumblebees and flies and moths which closely resemble
bumblebees, do not sting.
(1) Bombus impatiens; (2) B. bimaculatus; (3) B. griseocollis;
(4) B. ternarius; (5) B. terricola; (6) B. americanorum; (7) B.
auricomus; (8) B. borealis; (9) B. fervidus; (10) B. affinis;
(11) B. perplexus; (12) B. vagans; (13) B. rufocinctus; (14) Psithyrus
variabilis; (15) P. ashtoni; (16) P. laboriosus; (17) P. insularis;
( 18) P. fernaldae.
To determine if you have a mimic, put your living insect, contained
in a jelly jar, in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to stop its
activity. If it has 2 wings instead of 4, it's a fly. If the antennae
are clubbed and appear to come from the top of the head and it
has scales, it's a moth. Male bumblebees, in contrast to females,
lack the cone at the back of the abdomen and lack the pollen basket
on the third pair of legs.
Bumblebees have relatively long pile (hairs) of contrasting
black and yellow patterns on a black shiny body. Two species have
additional orange colors. Honeybees and most digger bees which
are the size of small worker bumblebees lack the black and yellow
color patterns. Black and yellow carpenter bees have shorter hair,
rounded faces with the bottom of the eyes nearly touching the
base of the mandibles and have stout legs covered with stiff hairs.
In Psithyrus bumblebees, which are social para sites of
Bombus bumblebees, the hair is less dense on the abdomen.
So, the abdomen appears shiny like the abdomen of carpenter bees.
Robert W. Husband
Michigan Entomological Society, c/o Department
of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
48824--(15-V-77).