Short-faced bumble bee
The short-faced bumble bee is a furry bee from the Himalaya and Southeast Asia. It is mostly black, often with orange bands, and the first part of its tail is yellow. It is a bit of a dress-up artist, because its colours change from place to place.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
In each area it copies the colours of the most common local bumblebees, so it blends in with the crowd.
It has been seen visiting 47 different kinds of plants.
In India it is one of the main bees that pollinate black cardamom, a spice.
A bee grows from egg to adult in about 27 days.
One nest can make up to 660 workers and up to 920 male bees.
Most asked questions about Short-faced bumble bee
?What does the short-faced bumble bee eat?
Nectar and pollen from many kinds of flowers.
?Where does the short-faced bumble bee live?
In the Himalaya, China and Southeast Asia, from Nepal and India to Vietnam.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Bombus breviceps
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Apidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Apidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Short-faced bumblebee
Where the facts come from
- Bombus breviceps (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 Cheongweei Gan. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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