Flight of the Bumble Bee
ChristianKnight
extinction 10 years ago doing away with their medows.
With a ever growing population those flowery bastions of frolicing
colour gradually dissappear.
The Kiwi bee was in fact brought here from England and now certain
varieties have an oppotunity to revitilise the English countryside.
Christ's love
Geopelia
"ChristianKnight" <Christi...@operamail.com> wrote in message
news:260d607f-f806-40f2...@a32g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
There were several species of the English bumble bee. I liked the big black
one with the red end. It doesn't seem to be out here.
Lyndon Watson
> There were several species of the English bumble bee. I liked the big black
> one with the red end. It doesn't seem to be out here.
Four species were introduced to New Zealand (Bombus hortorum, B.
ruderatus, B. subterraneus and B. terrestris), but not one with a red
end to its abdomen. B. hortorum seems to be the common one round my
way. The report that I read didn't say which one or ones were being
taken to England.
LW
Geopelia
"Lyndon Watson" <te...@clear.net.nz> wrote in message
news:5f2193fd-a29c-4b2a...@r5g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
LW
The red ended one is Bombus lapidarius.
ChristianKnight
Channel three were quite in depth if you wish to watch there Video.
Christ's love
Geopelia
"Br. Scooter" <br.sc...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:mpmjj5pftffvl7p2q...@4ax.com...
> On , , Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:15:55 -0800 (PST), Re: Flight of the Bumble
> Bee,
> I don't know much about that one.
> I didn't know there were any other Bombus fans in the group.
>
One made a nest under the floor of our shed. I used to like watching the
bees go in and out.
Doesn't everybody like them?
ChristianKnight
> "Br. Scooter" <br.scoo...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
A bit scary though a great wonder on how such a fatty can fly.
Christ's love
Tony in Oz
"Geopelia" <phil...@xtra.co.nz> wrote in message
news:hhcpb6$oof$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>>
>
> One made a nest under the floor of our shed. I used to like watching the
> bees go in and out.
> Doesn't everybody like them?
>
over here! Give me the red backs and the brown snakes any day....
Lyndon Watson
> Lyndon Watson <te...@clear.net.nz> wrote:
> >Four species were introduced to New Zealand (Bombus hortorum, B.
> >ruderatus, B. subterraneus and B. terrestris), but not one with a red
> >end to its abdomen. B. hortorum seems to be the common one round my
> >way. The report that I read didn't say which one or ones were being
> >taken to England.
>
I think they all were. The problem was that the honey bee's tongue is
too short to reach to the bottom of a red clover flower. The most
widespread of the bumble bees, B. terrestris, also turned out to have
the same problem, but it is a valuable pollinator of chinese
gooseberries and other crops.
None of them have the colour pattern of Buzzy Bee. . . .
LW
Geopelia
LW
They get over the short tongue problem with broad bean flowers by nibbling
through the base of the flower.
Perhaps they do the same with red clover. Has anybody watched them? We've
got red clover in the lawn and bumble bees, I'll see if I can discover what
goes on.
Brian Dooley
It's a long time since I saw them called that. My wife has a
friend up Kati Kati way who sends us 'kiwifruit' in season and
they don't look anything like I remember chinese gooseberries
did.
>None of them have the colour pattern of Buzzy Bee. . . .
But does Buzzy Bee have a long enough tongue?
--
Brian Dooley
Wellington New Zealand
Lyndon Watson
> But does Buzzy Bee have a long enough tongue?
I. Am. Not. Going. To. Go. There.
LW
Lyndon Watson
> The report that I read didn't say which one or ones were being
> taken to England.
I just found a report in New Scientist. It is B. subterraneus, the
short-haired bumble bee, that is being rescued. Apparently it has a
very restricted diet, mainly the pollen of viper's bugloss, and even
in New Zealand it is confined to places where that plant flourishes,
mainly inland, dry South Island places.
A dead B. hortorum on my living room floor just went up the Nilfisk
tube. They seem to fly in windows that are on their feeding routes
and then perish when they can't continue. Back on the farm, my
washhouse seemed to be on such a route - I was always having to let
them out the window that was opposite the usually-open door.
LW
I think that's the first time in 20 years on the Usenet that I have
replied to my own post. I promise not to make a habit of it.
ChristianKnight
Not at all that was kindly informative.
Christ's love
~misfit~
But not the first time that you've nym-shifted I take it?
What nym did you previously post under?
--
Shaun.
"Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's
warm for the rest of his life." Terry Pratchet, 'Jingo'.
Brian Dooley
>Somewhere on teh intarwebs Lyndon Watson wrote:
>> On Dec 29 2009, 11:15 am, Lyndon Watson <te...@clear.net.nz> wrote:
>>> The report that I read didn't say which one or ones were being
>>> taken to England.
>>
>> I just found a report in New Scientist. It is B. subterraneus, the
>> short-haired bumble bee, that is being rescued. Apparently it has a
>> very restricted diet, mainly the pollen of viper's bugloss, and even
>> in New Zealand it is confined to places where that plant flourishes,
>> mainly inland, dry South Island places.
>>
>> A dead B. hortorum on my living room floor just went up the Nilfisk
>> tube. They seem to fly in windows that are on their feeding routes
>> and then perish when they can't continue. Back on the farm, my
>> washhouse seemed to be on such a route - I was always having to let
>> them out the window that was opposite the usually-open door.
>>
>> LW
>>
>> I think that's the first time in 20 years on the Usenet that I have
>> replied to my own post. I promise not to make a habit of it.
>
>But not the first time that you've nym-shifted I take it?
>
>What nym did you previously post under?
As far as I know he never has - or needed to.
Lyndon Watson
> On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 13:23:35 +1300, "~misfit~"
Let's see, from my failing memory (I stopped printing out eveything I
posted about 1991). . . .
I first posted in 1989 from my account on the University of
Canterbury's Vax server which was phy...@canterbury.ac.nz. I always
signed under my own name. Then, for a while, I used one of those
headers that were supposed to stop robotic spam replies and I showed
up with rat...@address.in.sig in the header, but still signing my own
name at the bottom. After my account shifted to the Sun server at UC,
I posted as l.wa...@it.canterbury.ac.nz, still signing my own name.
Then while I posted from a paradise.net dial-up which was so painfully
slow that I virtually disappeared for a few years, but still using my
own name. And finally here I am, courtesy of TelstraClear's cable,
still not pretending to be anyone else.
So, sorry, but Brian's right.
LW
KiwiBrian
the discussions.
"Lyndon Watson" <te...@clear.net.nz> wrote in message
news:02a3366a-5317-4f78...@u7g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
~misfit~
My apologies Lyndon. It's not often I see a 'new name' appear (I've only
been posting here [nz.general] two years) and post fairly prolifically
without it being a regular nym-shifting. I have a number of them in my
killfile.
Sorry to get off on the wrong foot.
Lyndon Watson
wrote:
> My apologies Lyndon.
No worries. It takes a lot worse than that to pierce my horny
integument.
> It's not often I see a 'new name' appear (I've only
> been posting here [nz.general] two years) and post fairly prolifically
> without it being a regular nym-shifting. I have a number of them in my
> killfile.
I've never used one of those. The trouble is that I sometimes enjoy
watching the loons and obsessives squeaking at each other; if I'm not
in the mood, I just don't bother and they go unread. nz.general has
suffered from them for as long as I've been around. Until it became
uninhabitable I posted mainly to soc.culture.new-zealand where the
discussions were conducted on a more intelligent level, and often went
for months without looking at this group - but now it's all there is.
> Sorry to get off on the wrong foot.
As I said, no worries.
LW