Die Zungen der Hummelkönigin sammeln Nektar weniger effizient als die der Arbeitsbienen, da ihre Zungen spärlicher behaart sind

>Queen bumblebees have a newfound excuse for slacking on foraging nectar: Their tongues are holding them back.

>Bumblebees have long, hairy tongues that help them lap up nectar from flowers. But queen bumblebee’s tongues are [less efficient at collecting nectar than those of worker bees](https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2527391123), researchers report January 12 in *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*.

>In the spring, when a queen bumblebee first [emerges from her winter slumber](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/hibernating-bumblebee-queen-underwater), she initially fuels herself by guzzling nectar from flowers. But once she establishes a nest and her eggs hatch into worker bees, she delegates foraging duties to the workers.

>Those workers may be better suited to the task, according to a close investigation of the tongues of buff-tailed bumblebees (*Bombus terrestris*). The bees’ tongues range in length from around 4 millimeters to 10 millimeters. The queens, who are bigger than the workers, tended to have longer tongues. But those longer tongues had relatively less hair, scanning electron microscope imagery revealed.

[Read more here](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/queen-bumblebees-tongue-hair-foraging) and the [research article here](https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2527391123).

I just realized i always assumed bumble bees mated in pairs. Off to wikipedia i go