Wingless Bees

[purpledragon2112]

Hi
Lately I have been finding several large bumblebees with there wings missing, they are still alive and feeding from flowers, but they obviously can't fly, they are having to walk from flower to flower, what could be causing this, at first I found a dead bee with no wings and put it down to ants, but now I'm finding them alive, they do seem to have mites on them, but from what I read on other threads on this site the mites are not necessarily detrimental to the bees health.
I was just wondering if anyone else has noticed this.
I live in Mid Devon.
Thanks x

[Matt Smith]

Are the wings "broken" - ie do they look like they have been snapped off leaving flat "stubs", or are the wings looking "crumpled", like they are deformed or have not expanded properly. I do have one queen B.hortorum in my collection like the latter, possibly some problems in the pupal stage meantthe wings could not expand properly.

[purpledragon2112]

Hi Matt
Thanks for the reply, they look like they have been broken off there is just the stumps where the wings should attach to the thorax, it looks like they are attempting to fly but there is nothing there, its really strange, I have never seen anything like it before.
x

[Jackaroo]

I don't know much about bees but I did come across a couple earlier this Summer.





I believe there's a virus (varroa borne?) which affects bees this way. Don't know whether it's confined to hive-reared bees or whether it's wide-spread in the wild species. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can tell.

[purpledragon2112]

That looks very much like it, thanks, I wonder what it is?

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by Jackaroo

I don't know much about bees but I did come across a couple earlier this Summer.





I believe there's a virus (varroa borne?) which affects bees this way. Don't know whether it's confined to hive-reared bees or whether it's wide-spread in the wild species. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can tell.

Varroa mites only affect Honey Bees. your bees are bumbles- Bombus lapidarius.

[eucera]

Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) may be the problem This almost certainly has multiple hosts (inc. Apis).

Varroa NOT the vector in this case for reasons stated elsewhere