The world is full of living things that serve the purpose of fulfilling the Lifecycle. Rusty Patched Bumblee is a certain species that was so useful in the process of pollination. Pollination is a process of plants reproduction in which the pollen grains from Anther(male part of a plant) are carried by the pollinators to reproduce the pollen grains into seed by contacting female flowers stigma.
Rusty Patched Bumblee’s native land was Eastern North America. They were dispensed to the East and the upper U.S. They were excellent pollinators for Cranberries, Wildflowers, and other important crops. Their life cycle starts in Early Spring by commencing with building colonies with help of workers and reclusive queen and progress to ending their Cycle by reproduction before the winter. During the winter they won’t expose themself out and they crawl inside their hives for protection.
Bees collecting pollen from a flower
Life Cycle:
A picture of Rusty patch Bumblebees life Cycle
Their lifetime depends upon their surrounding. If a positive environment is created they live about 4-5 months. Queens can live up to 77days on average. They live in the Grasslands with flowers near the range of their home. The nectar and the pollen grains are the food for them. The queen’s position has a dominant member in the colony to helpful in releasing Pheromones. The pheromones take a major part in reproduction and in increasing the population of the colony.
The male Bees are the kindest ones that don’t sting humans. But female bees sting when they are threatened. Their appearance differs from the role of the character. All Rusty Patched Bumblee have Blackheads, but only workers and the males have a rusty patch on their backs. And they have a Yellow upper thorax with a black spot comparing other bumblebees. They differ in size. The Queen bee is about 20-22 mm and its workers are smaller with 13-17.5 mm.
Extinction of Rusty Patched Bumblee:
Picture describing the extinction of Rusty patched bumblebee
The Great era of Rusty Patched Bumblee came to a downfall in their population in the late 1990s with a drop of 87 percent. The cause of their vanish is found that their surroundings affected the population. Experts found out that the thread to the Rusty Patched Bumblee is diseases, pesticides, climate changes like Drought, Precipitation of rainfall, and habitat loss. When technology and Farming developed the usage of pesticides have increased and that affected the Rusty patch bumblebees hive which is built under the ground. The diseases from the other bees from outside America also play a vital role in their downfall in population. Now their whole population till now can be measured has 0.1 percentage all around the globe.
Breaking the Extinction:
Their disappearance from the later 1990s was well noticed by the people and the people at Scientific research worried about them. The Xerces Society filed a petition to make the Rusty Patched Bumblee take place in the list of US Endangered species act. The Us fish and wildlife service finalized them in the endangered species. They are also added to the Endangered list of Canada, Species of Greatest Conservation Need-Tier 1a on the Virginia Wildlife Action plan.
With the help of the US Endangered species act and US fish and wildlife, they commenced an order to save the species from extinction by coming up with certain orders like preserving the Grasslands, Greenhouses, and planting native plants, shrubs, and trees that provide pollen seeds on each backyard of the houses in America.
By the law, they started to prevent extinction. But National Geographic took an effort of making a short film about the situation with mixed emotions to interest the viewers convey the message and bring awareness to more people about the news.
To the current date, the species of Rusty Patched Bumblee isn’t extinct. The increase in the population of the species is not quicker but the improvement is ongoing.
Date: 04/01.2022