A cuckoo is a bird. Bumblebee is an insect. Cuckoo bumblebees are … who? Even experts did not immediately deal with this issue. More precisely, more recently, they were not even singled out at all. They did not know about their existence. To observe these insects, to study their habits and lifestyle began only about two hundred years ago. Psitiruses were first described only in 1836 by the French Lepeliete.
Description
In general, we are talking about insects. Cuckoo bumblebees are close relatives of bees that look very similar to ordinary bumblebees. These insects are parasites. They make their way into ordinary nests and kill the queens. Unlike most of these insects, these have no working individuals - their families consist only of females and males. The females of these deceivers lay eggs, which the owners grow as their own. In addition, the invaders themselves also live in the nest, since bumblebees take them for relatives. They differ only in the absence of baskets for collecting pollen and brushes located on their legs.
Why cuckoo bumblebees are so called is understandable. But it is not entirely clear how they can be distinguished from ordinary ones. In addition to the presence of baskets, which are not always easy to notice, there are differences in the color of the wings - in psitiruses they are noticeably darker.
The chitinous skeleton of insects is thickened, hard - this is necessary to protect against owners if they suddenly recognize a cheater in their nest. The hairline has a vague color pattern. The body is not clearly distinguished by color. The abdomen is naked, the hairline is absent in this place - this is especially true for females. “Fake” bumblebees can even be distinguished by their sound: the sound of the flight is low, hoarse, completely unlike the melodic buzzing of ordinary individuals.
The bodies are very large: 19-22 mm long and up to 10 mm wide. Males have a longer, but also narrower body.
Behavior
There are two versions of how the nest is captured.
According to the first of them, the female kills the mistress immediately after she enters the "room".
Another version suggests that psitirus imperceptibly sneaks into the nest, hiding for several days. He does this in order to soak in the smells characteristic of this particular “house”. After that, the female enters the room in which the uterus lives, eating with her. The parasite kills the hostess only when she herself needs to lay eggs.
Bumblebees who do not build nests differ about ordinary ones not only in appearance, but also in behavior. Some features are striking, while others can be detected only by closely observing the life of the insect inside the nest.
For example, parasitic insects fly out of their homes after wintering very late - in June, at which time females of common bumblebees already manage to lay nests. Thus, they get into the family already when the first "party" of barren female workers is already withdrawn - additional "slaves" will not interfere with any queen, even a fake one.
It is known that cuckoo bumblebees are not only parasitic organisms, but also quite serious killers in the insect world. It was found that during the non-lethal period, they are able to kill bees in order to get food from their honey goiter. Beekeepers often blame these bumblebees for these losses.
From the description it becomes clear why cuckoo bumblebees are so called: like birds of the same name, they do not build their own houses, and their offspring are brought up by extraneous insects. It turns out that this behavior is not unique to some representatives of the feathered world.
Number
In our country, bumblebees, who do not build nests, live almost everywhere. In a large number of regions, these insects are listed in the local Red Books, but there are places where their numbers are so high that ordinary bumblebees are threatened with extinction.
Features
Bumblebee parasites, as is already known, do not have working individuals of their kind, since all the necessary work for them is done by "slaves" from captured nests. There are no collection baskets for the same reason: cuckoo bumblebees are not insects that procure provisions. They only use what others have prepared.
Only fertilized females remain overwinter. They feed on nectar from wild and agricultural plants, preferring those flowers that have a deep tubular corolla.
Threatening factors
Currently, there is a widespread decline in populations due to human activities. Bumblebee parasites disappear as a result of degradation of the food supply, which inevitably follows mowing, park landscaping, and replacing grasses. Forest fires, mass events do not contribute to an increase in the number of species.
Security
To date, not everyone, even a villager, can say what a bumblebee looks like. It is for this reason that in many regions the insect is listed in the Red Books, their destruction is prohibited. It is not yet possible to create reserves in which it would be possible to preserve the species.
View change
During the period of observation of insects, it became clear that they are able to adapt to new conditions, however, even with a high adaptability of the species, it remains quite small. Adverse factors affecting biotopes are unremovable.
