I had a little friendly debate with a friend of mine about the nature of Bumblebees and was hoping you all could help me settle it.
I believe Bumblebees are largely solitary bees and do not have any strong social obligations toward one another and don’t really interact with others except for mating purposes.
My friend believes they are akin to Honeybees and build a hive, have a Queen and are very societal beings.
Which (if either) of us are correct? Would love to get the straight dope on this one
You could make an argument that both of you are right. Bumblebees are social, but they aren’t true social bees.
Bumblebees start life as solitary animals. The females construct a nest in early spring and lay eggs. The eggs hatch into more females which remain subservient to the nest founder and tend her eggs.
In late autumn the hormone output of the founder alters, and she starts producing male eggs. A side effect of this is that she also loses control of the other females in the nest. At that stage all females start laying eggs and the nest rapidly descends into anarchy, collapses and all the bees are dead before winter. The eggs left behind then hatch the following spring and the cycle starts all over again.
So while the bees live at least part of their lives as social animals, they aren’t truly social in the sense of having a single queen and a permanent colony structure the way that honey bees do.
