Page 18 - Bumblebee Conservation Trust Buzzword Magazine July 2020

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Your guide to cuckoo bees Looking

There are six cuckoo bee species in the UK. All are widespread, but none are found
country-wide and all are generally found in low numbers wherever they occur. Unlike for love Photo: Male, Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) by Sabina
‘true’, social bumblebees, cuckoos have no pollen baskets – you will never see a Hopkinson
cuckoo bumblebee with pollen lumps on its legs. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
By Darryl Cox, Senior Science & Policy Officer
A cuckoo bumblebee female is so named because, just like the bird, she will go into
the nest of a social bumblebee and take it over for herself. A cuckoo bumblebee does
not produce any workers, just new females and males. They also don’t collect pollen – Male bumblebees have developed a go on to mate, sometimes with multiple
the hosts’ workers collect the pollen for them! bit of a bad reputation: kicked out of queens.
the nest at an early stage for doing The majority of the rest of the species in
very little work, and mainly known
Field cuckoo bee • Bombus campestris Southern cuckoo bee • Bombus vestalis for their shaggy, unkempt beach- Britain do something known as patrolling,
bum looks and habit of lazing around in which males mark out a route by daubing
Widespread. Common in South. sipping nectar between chasing plant stems with their own special aftershave
Attacks mainly Attacks mainly Buff- queens. However, the competition to – pheromones secreted from glands on
Common carder tailed bumblebees. their mandibles and spread with tufts of their
bees. Two male The tail is white, with find a new queen is incredibly fierce facial hair. These circuits can be anything
forms occur; light large yellow patches and sadly, for most male bumblebees, from 100m to a kilometre long, and up to
and dark. The on the left and right they will never father the next 30 males can be seen making the rounds
wings are strongly at the front of the generation (despite their best efforts!). together in the hope that a queen has come
F M M dark tinged. F M tail. The art of finding and mating with across a scent marking and has shown
a queen is difficult to master, and interest. Interestingly, different species set
Forest cuckoo bee • Bombus sylvestris Barbut’s cuckoo bee • Bombus barbutellus different species have different out their courses at different heights and
approaches. Tree bumblebees the males also feed away from the mating
Widespread. Widespread. perhaps have the most blatant circuit, which tend not to be rich in flowers
Attacks mainly Early Attacks mainly strategy in which many males seek
bumblebees. The tail Garden bumblebees. out and congregate outside a nest anyway. These are likely to be behavioural
is white, although The tail is white. The adaptions to help segregate mating activity:
males have a small wings have a dark, that has reached the reproductive queens of all species feed on flowers and so
patch of red/ dusky appearance. stage, turning the space into what males trying their luck in a busy forage patch
orange at the tip of Some can appear is best described as the bumblebee have a much higher chance of finding the
F M the tail. F M almost black. equivalent of a nightclub dancefloor. wrong species!
Each male bee will spend his time
Gypsy cuckoo bee • Bombus bohemicus Red-tailed cuckoo bee • Bombus rupestris tirelessly dancing around the entrance,
watching for a new queen to appear.
Widespread. Attacks Southern species. When they emerge, they are often
mainly White-tailed Attacks mainly Red- clattered into in mid-air by several
bumblebees. The tails tailed bumblebees. amorous males and spend the next
are white with small Males have straw moments trying to wrestle away
yellow patches on the coloured banding from them on the ground. The scene
sides. Largely on thorax and can seem quite violent; however, it
restricted to the north abdomen. The is essentially a test of strength and
F M and west. F M female mainly black. queens naturally want to find the
strongest mate. For this reason, it is Photos: Red-tailed bumblebees
(Bombus lapidarius) mating;
mainly larger and heavier males that Male Trees bumblebees
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18 Further info at bumblebeeconservation.org/bumblebee-species-guide/ (Bombus hypnorum) 19
competing for a mate