K e y w o r d s : Bombus lucorum-complex, Bombus cryptarum, Bombus magnus, cryptic species, morphological characters, future issues

Several bumble bee (Bombus) species in North America have undergone range reductions and rapid declines in relative abundance. Pathogens have been suggested as causal factors, however, baseline data on pathogen distributions in a large number of bumble bee species have not been available to test this hypothesis. In a nationwide survey of the US, nearly 10,000 specimens of 36 bumble bee species ...

The increasing evidence for population declines in bumble bee (Bombus) species worldwide has accelerated research efforts to explain losses in these important pollinators. In North America, a number of once widespread Bombus species have suffered serious reductions in range and abundance, although other species remain healthy. To examine whether declining and stable species exhibit different le...

Habitat fragmentation can have severe effects on plant pollinator interactions, for example changing the foraging behaviour of pollinators. To date, the impact of plant population size on pollen collection by pollinators has not yet been investigated. From 2008 to 2010, we monitored nine bumble bee species (Bombus campestris, Bombus hortorum s.l., Bombus hypnorum, Bombus lapidarius, Bombus pasc...

Bumble bee (Bombus) species are ecologically and economically important pollinators, and many species are in decline. In this article, we develop a mechanistic model to analyse growth trajectories of Bombus vosnesenskii colonies in relation to floral resources and land use. Queen production increased with floral resources and was higher in semi-natural areas than on conventional farms. However,...

Declines in many bumble bee species have been documented in Europe raising several ecological and economic concerns. The nature and extent of bumble bee decline in North America is poorly understood due mainly to a lack of baseline and long-term data. Museum collections provide excellent sources of information on past and current species distributions, which can be used to infer changes in the ...

The aim of this study was to find out where bumble bee queens place their nests in the agricultural landscape. Nest-seeking behaviour was used to indicate nesting site preferences. Four types of agricultural landscape were investigated near Uppsala, Sweden: open, relatively open, relatively wooded and wooded. Twelve 500-metre-long transects, each including several intermingled habitats (e.g., f...

The nesting behaviour of the subgenus Mendacibombus is known only from Bombus mendax. Here, we describe the nest of a second species of Mendacibombus, that of Bombus shaposhnikovi. The nest was discovered in an abandoned rodent nest at 2,295 m near Artvin (Turkey) on August 12, 2007. Except for the absence of a canopy and the non-hexagonal shape of the honey and pollen pots, the architecture of...

Bumblebees have economical importance in most of wild and cultivated plants. They can be abundant in suitable habitats and have a broad flower choice. Bombus terrestris was collected at intervals during 2002 and 2003 from various flora and ecosystems of east Mediterranean region of Turkey. In this study, plants visited by Bombus terrestris, seasonal activities, distribution and altitudes were d...

Bombus atratus bumblebees from Colombia that were caught in the wild and from breeding programs were screened for a broad set of bee pathogens. We discovered for the first time Lake Sinai Virus and confirmed the infection by other common viruses. The prevalence of Apicystis bombi, Crithidia bombi and Nosema ceranae was remarkably high. According to other studies the former two could have been c...