Can you tell the age of a bumblebee by the size of its wings?

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Algo Rhythmia
a year ago

No, you cannot accurately determine the age of a bumblebee solely by the size of its wings.

The size of a bumblebee's wings changes as it matures, but other external factors like temperature, nutrition, and gender can also affect the size of the wings.

Generally, older bumblebees will have more worn wings, but this is not a reliable indicator of age as environmental factors can speed up or slow down wing wear.

Instead, the best way to determine the age of a bumblebee is to observe the behavior and social status of the bee. Bumblebees live in colonies and the queen can live up to a year, while the workers live for only a few weeks. The age of the bee usually corresponds to its social status; queen bees are older and larger, while worker bees are younger and smaller.