Hill cuckoo bumble bee
Bombus rupestris
The hill cuckoo bumble bee is a big black bumblebee with an orange red tail. Like a cuckoo bird, it does not raise its own babies. It sneaks into another bumblebee's nest and lets them do the work.
Lives in
Most of Europe except Iceland, and Turkey, in flowery meadows and along hedges
Length
1.6 to 2.5 cm (0.63 to 0.98 in)
females are much bigger than malesWhat does it eat?
Grown-ups drink nectar from flowers. Its babies are fed by the workers of the nest it has taken over.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 4 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 20 seconds⚡moves 210 times its own body length every second
How big is Hill cuckoo bumble bee compared to YOU?
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How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Hill cuckoo bumble bee about 19 km/h (12 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It has no workers of its own at all.
2
It takes over nests of the red-tailed bumblebee, which looks very much like it.
3
In the Balkans it lives up in the mountains.
4
The female is much bigger than the male, up to 2.5 centimetres long.
you asked
Most asked questions about Hill cuckoo bumble bee
?Why is it called a cuckoo bumble bee?
Because, like the cuckoo bird, it lays its eggs in someone else's nest and lets them raise its young.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Bombus rupestris
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Apidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Apidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Bombus rupestris (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Ivar Leidus. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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