Vestal cuckoo bumblebee
| Vestal cuckoo bumblebee | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Clade: | Euarthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Apidae |
| Genus: | Bombus |
| Species: | B. vestalis |
| Binomial name | |
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Bombus vestalis Geoffroy, 1785 |
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Bombus vestalis, the vestal cuckoo bumblebee, is a species of cuckoo bumblebee that lives in most of Europe, as well as North Africa and western Asia. It is a brood parasite that takes over the nests of other bee species. Its primary host is Bombus terrestris (the buff-tailed bumblebee). After its initial classification as Psithyrus vestalis, this bumblebee recently was reclassified into the genus Bombus, subgenus Psithyrus.
The queen is a large bumblebee with a length up to 21 mm (0.83 in) and a wingspan of 37 mm (1.5 in); the male is considerably smaller (16 mm (0.63 in)). The bumblebee is predomninantly black, with an orange collar. The third tergite has a border of yellow hairs, and the hairs on the fifth tergite are mostly white. The males are similar to the females, but smaller and with longer antennae.
It is similar in appearance to another cuckoo bumblebee, Bombus bohemicus, but is distinguishable by either the length of the antennal segments or dissection and comparison of the genitalia. In Bombus vestalis, the fifth antennal segment will be the same length as the third and fourth together.
A key characteristic of Bombus vestalis is the lack of corbiculae or a pollen basket on the hind legs of the bee. This is evolutionarily relevant because Bombus vestalis does not make its own nests or collect its own resources. With its larger body and poor foraging skills, the female Bombus vestalis are adapted to taking over nests of other species which have already been made and using the workers in these colonies to collect pollen.
A brood of bees successfully raised by Bombus vestalis is mainly female. This is evolutionarily beneficial since the female is the sex which takes over host species and allows Bombus vestalis to reproduce. In fact, many of the male bees which are hatched in a nest that has been taken over by Bombus vestalis are a result of host workers who were able to successfully lay eggs despite the aggression of the invaders. Although they display haplodiploidy where males are haploid and females are diploid, morphologically, male and female Bombus vestalis are very similar and can be classified with a mosaic gynander. They have similar mandible and body structures, and it is likely that the differences are only derived from chromosomal alterations during development of the embryo.
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