It might be +4K on Pluto but not in Germany. > -----Original Message----- > From: pbs [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Garak > Sent: Sunday, August 02, 2015 4:30 PM > To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > Subject: Re: [pbs] Floral Visitors, bumble bee problem > > Hi Åke , > > I'm not sure if it's one or more species - I'm not good at telling bumblebees > apart, basically anything winged that looks slightly overweight is a bumblebee > to me. A quick Wikipedia check makes Bombus Hortorum a likely candidate. > Definitely some sort with a white tip of the lower body. As I said: this > Summer was extraordinary dry and hot in southern germany - July saw +4K > on average Temperature and about 40% of average rain after a series of very > dry months. I think it had a disastrous effect on meadows, so that even > clover and dandelion ceased flowering. > Mirabilis Jalapa will see another month or two of flowering (one for > hibernated tubers, two for seedlings), so I hope you're right and the queens > won't learn that trick. In worst case scenario I'll have to pause a year and > hope no on else has them - Mirabilis isn't that popular around here ('cause > most people have no taste in flowers ;) ). > > Greetings, > Martin > > Am 02.08.2015 um 20:13 schrieb Åke Nordström: > > Hi Martin! > > > > I don't know for how long your Mirabilis will keep on flowering, but at the > end of the season when the last bumble bee larvae are produced - the ones > that are going to be new queens and produce the new colonies next season, > I would guess the flowering is over. If so, the new queens will stick to other > food sources and will not be able to learn this habit and they can't pass it on > to next season and bumble bee generation. Of course, if it happened once it > can happen again, but I guess something must have happened to their main > food plants this year so this was just a coincidence. Do you know what > species of bumble bee it was? Or was it more than one species? > > > > Greetings from Åke in northern Sweden, where the summer is still cold > (12-15 C) and wet. > > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/