long term monitoring Bombus drone sites

[James Cane]

Greetings folks,

So once again here, Bombus griseocollis drones are cruising the very same length of lower montane trail along which I have seen them annually for the past dozen years. No males elsewhere else along the adjoining trail network. Ditto for another trail that ascends the other side of the canyon. I would not have guessed that each year's generation would cruise the same location and find mates there. Who knows how long it it has been going on before I finally noticed it!

 Could one of you glance in Goulson's book to see if he mentions persistent male congregation sites? I do not have his book. I will check in Alford, which I can check out from campus library, acquired back when they bought honest-to-god books. Do any of you have comparable long-term observations? If it is not documented, we could assemble a note reporting it.

Obviously no hurry with this. I look forward to your responses.

yerz, jim

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James H. Cane

Native bee and pollination ecologist

Emeritus USDA-ARS Bee Lab, Logan, Utah

owner -  WildBeecology

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jim-Cane

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"Knowledge and comprehension are the joy and justification of humanity"
 Alexander von Humboldt

[clickbeetle3364]

Hi Jim, I have an honest-to-God copy of Alford in my office (but not Goulson) and quickly checked the section on male flight paths.  Although Alford does not present any original findings on this topic, he does cite Darwin as noting "that some visiting places were favoured by different B. hortorum males over a period of several years."

That comes from some of Darwin's field notes which were translated from German and published by Freeman (1968), titled "Charles Darwin on the routes of male humble bees."  The paper is available on BHL: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2276384#page/289/mode/1up

It's worth a read!  The information you're looking for starts at the bottom of page 182.  Darwin's description of getting his kids to crawl into hedges and shout whenever they saw a bee is quite charming.  How the bees are able to find the exact same "buzzing spots" year after year is also rather mystifying.

[Henry Steig]

Hi Jim,

I unfortunately don't have either of the books on hand, but you might be interested in these papers: 

Alcock & Alcock 1983

Goulson 2011

Goulson 2011 reports evidence of hilltopping in palearctic Bombus, and presumably males using this strategy would return to the same hilltop across multiple generations. Alcock & Alcock describe male behavior in B. auricomus and B. griseocollis and in both species males were observed to return to the same perching locations year-over-year. 

Best,

Henry

[Jim Bess]

Hi All,

 

Here in the Keweenaw Peninsula of ichigan's western UP, Bombus impatiens males congregate on our Eupatorium fistulosum every late summer/fdall.  They are joined by a few Bombus rufocinctus and the occasional male or queen Bombus insularis.  Late season sunflowers also attract these bees and they tend to stay overnight.

 

Cheers,

 

Jim Bess

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[Cory Sheffield]

Hi Jim,

There is a hill top I visited a few years ago that had at least 30 males of Bombus nevadensis cruising the area and they were and then landing on the same plants; I have many photos. I would suspect that males use this same hill year after year as it was such a good location. We did not see any of the males at lower elevation below the hill top.

Be easy enough to pay some more visits to check.

I also looked in my copy of Plath, he mentions patrolling but not year after year site use.

Cheers,

Cory

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[Ai Wen]

Jim and all,

My question is how early is "too early" to see male B. griseocollis. I am in north-central Iowa and for the past 4-5 years, I always saw hoards of male B. griseocollis in my front yard, starting as early as the first week of July, and lasting all the way to the end of the season, congregating on Echinacea flowers (later on mountain mints). They always gave me a sense of impending doom, because I thought the presence of congregated males suggests a nest failure somewhere close by, and the workers are reproducing drones. And since I see this repeating every year, I thought my neighborhood must be a bad place for bumblebees (I do have neighbors that love to spray). But, if what you suggested is true, maybe their consistent, early presence does not have to mean a nest failure? Maybe there is a genetic component inherited from the previous generations that tells them to visit the same location? Does this species just produce males way earlier than some other common bumble bee species like impatiens and auricomus? --Ai

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Ai Wen, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Department of Biology

193 McCollum Science Hall

University of Northern Iowa

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