Experimental analyses of competition between two species of bumble bees (Hymenoptera: apidae)

Dynamical aspects of flower usage and forager body size in sympatric and experimentally-induced allopatric populations of Bombus flaviforns and Bombus rufocinctus were studied in 10 discrete subalpine meadows and over the last half of one summer. Results indicate that there is a high degree of asymmetry in the competitive effects and that B. flavifrons is the clear competitive and numerical dominant. When occurring alone, B. rufocinctus used the same spectrum of flowers in similar frequencies to that of B. flavifrons whose flower use was invariant over all meadows and treatments. When sympatric with B. flavifrons, B. rufocinctus was relegated to secondary, less preferred flowers. Shifts in flower use by B. rufocinctus were accompanied by changes in forager body-size: body weights were greater in allopatric populations of B. rufocinctus and smaller in those sympatric with B. flavifrons. Competitive dominance may be related to differences in species phenologies. Bombus flavifrons initiated colonies in the spring three weeks before B. rufocinctus and maintained higher densities over the summer; by virtue of greater numbers of foragers, it may control exploitation of the most profitable flowers.