The Beautiful Parasite - _TNY_9654
Looking at this big fuzzy bundle of softness, it is easy to immediately think that it is a friendly and nice bumblebee that wouldn't threaten other insects like a wasp or so.
The truth though, is that this is a cuckoo bumblebee - either the Gypsy's cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus bohemicus) or a Barbut's cuckoo-bee (Bombus barbutellus).
Much like the actual cuckoo, these guys (or technically girls, I suppose) don't construct their own nests, but instead lay their eggs in the burrow of another spieces of bumblebee. These two species are pretty close in markings so I can't tell which it is.
If you look at the hind legs of this one you can see that it doesn't have corbiculae (pollen baskets) as these don't need to gather any pollen to feed their offspring.
The Beautiful Parasite - _TNY_9654
Looking at this big fuzzy bundle of softness, it is easy to immediately think that it is a friendly and nice bumblebee that wouldn't threaten other insects like a wasp or so.
The truth though, is that this is a cuckoo bumblebee - either the Gypsy's cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus bohemicus) or a Barbut's cuckoo-bee (Bombus barbutellus).
Much like the actual cuckoo, these guys (or technically girls, I suppose) don't construct their own nests, but instead lay their eggs in the burrow of another spieces of bumblebee. These two species are pretty close in markings so I can't tell which it is.
If you look at the hind legs of this one you can see that it doesn't have corbiculae (pollen baskets) as these don't need to gather any pollen to feed their offspring.