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Distribution and Ecological Impact of Bumblebee Queens in Korea
Bumblebees are important pollinators for wild flora and agricultural production. The introduction of bumblebees into greenhouses for pollination has become widespread in recent years and demand increases annually. Bumblebees give farmers the opportunity to decrease their pollination labor costs and offer a good crop yield, both in quantity and in quality. Colonies of the large bumblebee Bomus. terrestris have been imported into many countries. There has been some anxiety associated with the introduction of B. terrestris. Here, we investigated the distribution of founder bumblebee queens that were collected between 2000 and 2012 in Korea, and we show the interspecific hybridization between bumblebee species, B. terrestris and B. ignitus, under laboratory conditions. As results, a total of 13,130 overwintered bumblebee queens were collected at 63 locations from 8 provinces; the collected bumblebees consisted of five species of native bumblebees (Bombus ardens, B. ignitus, B. hypocrita spporoensis, B. ussurensis and B. consobrinus wittenburgi) and one species of exotic bumblebee (B. terrestris). The dominant species were Bombus ardens Smith and Bombus ignitus Smith, which accounted for 7,462 (56.8%) and 3,725 (28.4%) of the collected bumblebees, respectively. As a proportional distribution of the founder bumblebee queens that were collected, B. ignitus was the most common (9.8%-78.5%), followed by B. ardens (9.8%-66.1%), B. hypocrita spporoensis (0.9%-31.4%), B. ussurensis (0.8%-22.2%), B. consobrinus wittenburgi (0.1%-3.8%) and B. terrestris (0%-1.1%). In indoor conditions, interspecific, cross-mated queens of B. ignitus or B. terrestris produced offspring but did not create a colony, and when a hybrid male B. terrestris copulated with a virgin queen of B. terrestris, the queen oviposited but did not initiate a nest. Further study of interspecies hybridization and its development will ultimately provide important information on the ecological impact to native bumblebees.
