I continued late this afternoon with my current fascination, butterflies and bees. Yesterday I had discovered yet another species that I hadn't seen before. This one was Bombus bohemicus, the Gypsy Cuckoo Bumblebee. I made a conscious decision a few years ago to try and name the Bumblebees that I see and because it is a very seasonable thing it's quite a challenge. Each year you learn a few more facts and then twelve months later you have forgotten all you learned the previous year. The same can be said of Hoverflies and Dragonflies of course. Cuckoo Bumblebees are fascinating insects. They breed by taking over the nests of a specific Bumblebee species , in the case of the Gypsy Bumblebee that is Bombous Terrestris, the Buff-tailed Bumblebee. Once the queen Gypsy Cuckoo has killed the "founder`" queen she lays her own eggs in the nest and they are then tended and cared for by the workers as if they were their own. I doubt if too many videos of this species exist so I was pleased to get fil this today. This one was feeding on thistle and the white tail is stained with yellow polen. Cuckoo Bumblebees do not collect pollen and do not posess "pollen baskets" on the legs in the way that regular bumblebees do.
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