BUMBLE BEES IN IRELAND

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BUMBLE BEES IN IRELAND
Andrew Byrne National Biodiversity Data Centre
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• Bees of the World

• Bees are hymenoptera, top 3 biggest insect
  groups
• 19,500 bee species described (Ascher et al.,
  2008)
• Bumblebees 267 species world wide described...
  (Williams, 1998 2009).
• All bumblebees live in the northern hemisphere,
  and are adapted to cooler climates (Williams,
  1995 2009).

a few species are found in mountains in South
America
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• Bees value

• Economically, animal pollination services have
  been valued at 6575 billion globally (Pimentel
  et al., 1997)
• Honeybee pollination alone in the United States
  was evaluated at 14.6 billion in 2000 (Morse and
  Calderone, 2000).
• 70 of angiosperm plants being insect pollinated
  (Schoonhoven et al., 1998)
• Keystone species in ecosystems, thus bee loss or
  decline can result in reduced fruit and seed-set
  in plants and can lead to disruption of
  plant-pollinator networks leading to possible
  extinction cascades (Steffan- Dewenter and
  Tscharntke, 1999 Waser and Ollerton, 2006)

See Byrne and Fitzpatrick, 2009
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• Bees value

Buchmann and Nabhan, 1996
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Buchmann and Nabhan, 1996
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Sunday Times, Feb. 2009
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Sunday Times, Feb. 2009
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• Life as a bumblebee
• How many species there are in Ireland
• Crash course in bumblebee identification
• Species threatened with extinction in Ireland
• How to catch a bumblebee in order to identify it
• What we know about bumblebees in Ireland
• How to record bumblebees
• Useful resources

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Where they live? What is their life cycle? What
do they eat? How do you tell males from females?
Life as a bumblebee...
Photo U. Fitzpatrick
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Where they live? What is their life cycle? What
do they eat? How do you tell males from females?
Life as a bumblebee...
Forage and find a nest
Queen prepares a pollen loaf and a nectar pot and
starts laying eggs
Queen emerges in early spring
New queen goes into hibernation. Males and the
old nest die off in the autumn/winter
Workers emerge and take over nest duties
Queen remains in the nest laying eggs
New queens and males leave the nest and mate
In mid-late summer the queen lays eggs which will
become males and new queens
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How many species are there in Ireland?
6 cuckoo bumblebees
14 true bumblebees
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Where they live? What is their life cycle? What
do they eat? How do you tell males from females?
Life as a bumblebee...
Forage and find a nest
Queen prepares a pollen loaf and a nectar pot and
starts laying eggs
Queen emerges in early spring
New queen goes into hibernation. Males and the
old nest die off in the autumn/winter
Workers emerge and take over nest duties
Queen remains in the nest laying eggs
New queens and males leave the nest and mate
In mid-late summer the queen lays eggs which will
become males and new queens
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How many species are there in Ireland?
6 cuckoo bumblebees 14 true bumblebees
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How many species are common in Ireland?
Common 6 species Bombus lucorum (B. magnus
B. cryptarum) Bombus terrestris Bombus
pratorum Bombus hortorum Bombus jonellus Bombus
pascuorum
Widespread but not common 2 species Bombus
muscorum Bombus lapidarius
Restricted geographic range Bombus monticola
Rare national conservation priorities Bombus
distinguendus Bombus ruderarius Bombus sylvarum
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TRUE BUMBLEBEE IDENTIFICATION IN IRELAND
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TRUE BUMBLEBEE IDENTIFICATION IN IRELAND
White tailed 4 species Red tailed 5
species Ginger tailed 1 species Blond tailed
2 species
http//www.nhm.ac.uk
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www.artdata.slu.se
White tailed 4 species (all common)
John Breen
B. hortorum
B. jonellus
B. lucorum
B. terrestris
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Red tailed 5 species
1 species
4 species
www.knnv.nl
B. monticola the mountain bumblebee
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4 species
John Breen
B. lapidarius
B. pratorum
B. sylvarum
John Breen
B. ruderarius
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Ginger tailed 1 species (common)
B. pascuorum
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Blond tailed 2 species
B. muscorum
B. distinguendus
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Identification issues to watch out for
Bombus magnus queen
Bombus cryptarum queen
Bombus lucorum queen
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Fitzpatrick, Murray, Byrne et al., 2006
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Rare bumblebees in Ireland
Grey pre 1980 red 1980 onwards
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How do you catch a bumblebee in order to identify
it?
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How much do we know about bumblebees in Ireland?
x
ü
Some idea of the distribution of the common
species Some idea of the distribution of the
widespread but uncommon species Good knowledge
of the distribution of B. monticola Know why the
rare species are declining
Know very little about the current distribution
of the cuckoo bumblebees or why they are
declining Dont know enough about how many
populations of the rare species remain and where
they are
Fitzpatrick, Murray, Byrne et al., 2006
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How do you record bumblebees and what should you
do with your bumblebee records?
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USEFUL RESOURCES
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http//www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/b
ombus/key_british_colour_info.html
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www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk
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Alford, D. V. (1975). Bumblebees. Davis-Poynter
Ltd. Benton, T. (2000). The Bumblebees of Essex.
Lopinga Books. Benton, T (2006). Bumblebees.
Collins. Edwards, M. Jenner, M. (2005) Field
Guide to the Bumblebees of great Britain
Ireland. Ocelli Ltd. Goulson, D. (2003).
Bumblebees Their behaviour and ecology. Oxford
University Press. Macdonald, M, (2003).
Bumblebees. Scottish Natural Heritage.
Matheson, Andrew (Ed.). (1996). Bumble bees for
pleasure and profit. International Bee Research
Association. O'Toole, Christopher. (2002).
Bumblebees. Osmia Publications, Banbury,
England. Pinchen, Bryan J. (2006). A pocket
Guide to the Bumblebees of Britain and Ireland.
Forficula Books. Prys-Jones, O. E. and Corbet,
S. A. (1987, 1991). Bumblebees. Cambridge
University Press. Sladen, F. W. L. (1912,
1989). The humble-bee. Macmillian and Co. Ltd.
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Byrne, 2009