Sunday 23 June 2019

Do bumblebees hold grudges?

Do bumblebees hold grudges?

Late June and the Cotswold brambles are coming into flower. 


attracting our smallest bumblebees, like this Bombus pratorum worker

and our largest, like the White-tailed bumblebees, Bombus lucorum



 each lucorum bee seems to linger on the bramble flower to savour every single drop of sweet nectar. Sometimes colliding with bramble thorns as they search for new flowers. Are they intoxicated? Sometimes they seem a little dizzy and poorly coordinated as they fly between the thorns.

I startled one lucorum sunning itself on the grass. It flew up into the brambles and barged a fellow lucorum bumblebee that was gorging on bramble nectar. She was taken unawares and fell like a stone onto the grass. Moments later she reappeared and smacked into the offending bee, causing it to fly off in search of another flower.

Could they be from the same colony? Or were they rivals for the food which seemed plentiful. All around, there were open bramble flowers; why pick on the bee on this one particular flower?

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