Bumble bee fight

[Lord V]

heard a loud buzzing yesterday in a miniature hebe bush and found what I thought was two bumble bees mating. Turned out they were fighting. The smaller one had a jaw lock on the other's antenna. The fight lasted about 15 mins- it looked like the smaller one had been stung and the larger one was trying to release the lock on it's antenna. I went inside to get some instruments and strong close up glasses to help separate them but the larger one had already extricated itself. I put the smaller one in a flower pot to see if it would recover and in fact thought it had (I couldn't find it a few hours later) but looking this morning I did find the body.

Any ideas what was going on ? - haven't seen these fighting before. Only other piece of probably irrelevent info is, there was a conopid fly around at the time (Sicus ferrugineus ) but I didn't see it get any bumble bees.

Brian V.

[Bruce Williams]

Fascinating post and some great images too. I've never heard of bumble bees fighting - I wonder if this is a rare or fairly frequent event?

Thanks for sharing.
Bruce

[Bumblebeebob]

Perhaps they were 2 rival queens? I've heard of queens killing others in the nest but not fighting in the open. Another possibility is that one was a Cuckoo Bumblebee, they will sometimes be killed by other Bees if it enters the nest. But again I've never heard of them fighting in the open.

[Lord V]

Originally Posted by Bumblebeebob

Perhaps they were 2 rival queens? I've heard of queens killing others in the nest but not fighting in the open. Another possibility is that one was a Cuckoo Bumblebee, they will sometimes be killed by other Bees if it enters the nest. But again I've never heard of them fighting in the open.

Don't think they were queens of at least the same species - one was significantly smaller than the other.

Brian V.

[Venger]

So this is why the bees are disappearing?

[demicav]

I've never heard of this either. In fact I visited an area recently where I saw several different species of Bee all pollinating in harmony. Excellent photographs, it shows what can and does happen. Hopefully someone can shed some light on the issue as I for one would love to know the reason behind it.

[Lord V]

Thanks for the comments again. I've two large hebe bushes in theis area and normally the hoverflies and bees are fairly peaceable to everybody. The exceptions being the narcissus flies that seem to like dive bombing everybody and the conopid fly that has a go at bumble bees in flight. Someone else commented that they had heard of bumbles fighting over potential nesting areas but don't think that was the case here.
My initial though was that this was a mating attempt that went horribly wrong somewhere.
BTW am I correct in thinking bumble bees can sting without disembowling themselves ?- ie the stings are barbless.

Brian V.

[Bumblebeebob]

That is correct Bumbles can live to sting another day!

[ROYCER]

I to just 3 days ago observed 2 bumble bees fighting in mid air. they would houver about 2 to 3 feet away from one another and then start the rumble. They would graple in mid air flying furioiusly up and down and just everywhere. once they clung to eachother and actually hit the asphalt hard enough for me to hear it. after a few second bout, they would split and return to exact spot where they had been houvering before to i guess size eachother up again and then go at it again. i watched this for several minutes. one seemed to get tired and landed on the side of a building just around the corner from where the other one was waiting for more houvering in the same spot. i have never seen this behavior either and thought it facinating enough to watch. At the end i noticed a 3rd bee get involved and 2 seemed to gang up on the one. i eventually back off so far because i almost got hit several times and once there was a third be involved i decided this may end up in a battle of 2 hives. My initial thought is they were fighting over territory.. i will in a few day investigate the site more thouroughly to see if i can find a hive.

[Jason Green]

Evening Roycer, and welcome to WAB!

Sounds interesting. They though to me sound like Hoverflies. Males will hover in a good spot where they can find females. If another male enters his territory he'll chase him off before returning to patrol the area. I've even been challenged (or just checked-out) by one today - Epistrophe eligans. It sounds as though the second male was quite persistent.

Take care,

Jason