Bumblebee update – brief notes
by Chris, 28 August, 2018, 0 comments
The yellow banded bumblebee (Bombus terricola) is a North American species of bumblebee. It has been in decline across its range. This bumblebee is now down to about 10% of its former numbers. Recently, its genome has been sequenced at York University, Canada. This genetic analysis shows that the bumblebees are inbreeding. As bees become more inbred, the face difficulties in maintaining their population numbers. As population become smaller, there is a greater risk of inbreeding. Inbred bees have problems in terms of fertility. Males can become infertile so that if they mate with a queen, there are no offspring or the queen may produce sterile males instead of worker bees. Read more...
